A Hero's Legacy
by AboveTail
Summary: 1000 years after Uzumaki Naruto saved the world and brought peace to the Elemental Nations, Konoha has become the capital of the Elemental Empire, and the former ninja village is now a futuristic mega city of over 50 million. In this city choked by crime and the brutal regime of the Hokage, only one man can save it. A living legacy of the great hero, a man named Naruto.
1. Memories

Chapter 1: Memories

"Daddy! Daddy!" A dirty, but happy eight year old energetically tugged on his tired father's pant leg, "Tell me a story!"

Looking down at the smiling and expectant face of his young child, the man gave a weary chuckle and pulled the boy into his lap. "OK son," the man said with a smile, "what story do you want to hear this time?"

"Tell me the story about the great hero again!"

"Again?" The man asked with an amused look on his face, "You've asked me to tell you that story every night this week."

The boy grinned widely, lighting up the room with its brilliance, "It's my favorite Daddy! Tell me again!"

The man just shook his head and let out a resigned chuckle, "All right, all right." After taking a moment to organize his thoughts, the man took a deep breath and began to the story that had been told so many times before. "Once upon a time, before the dawn of the Elemental Empire, a hero was born in the ninja village of Konoha…"

"That's where we're from!" the boy chimed in proudly.

The man smiled, "That's right," he said, "but back then, Konoha was a small military village of thousands—rather than the millions living here today." He cleared his throat, "But let's continue shall we? One fateful night, under the light of a full moon, a masked man attacked Konoha and released the mighty Kurama, the nine-tailed fox from its human prison. By doing this, the masked man was able to inflict grave losses against the unprepared people of Konoha…but he was stopped when the beloved leader of the village, the 4th Hokage, sealed the demon fox into his newborn son—our hero—at the cost of he and his wife's lives. After the deed had been done, the 4th looked down at his infant son and entrusted him with a heavy burden of destiny."

"This part of the story is sad Daddy."

The man nodded. "Yes it is son," he replied, "but if our history teaches us anything, it is that the greatest of heroes—and villains—were born of tragedy. Indeed," he continued, "it was tragedy which shaped the hero into the man he would eventually become. Despite his father's wish that his son be regarded a hero for his sacrifice, for many years the boy was hated and feared the very people he had saved by becoming the bearer of the great fox."

"Why would they do that Daddy?" the boy asked, morally outraged at the treatment of his favorite hero, "He saved their lives didn't he? Why would they not listen to their leader?"

The man sighed, "It wasn't that simple," he replied, "it is human nature to fear that which we can't control, and when the villagers looked at the boy, they did not see him as the lonely orphan boy crying out for attention—they saw the fox, and thus, a reflection of their own helplessness. So instead of helping him, they looked away."

"But he sure showed them, huh, Daddy?"

The man smiled, "In a manner of speaking," he replied, "the hero's greatest strength, even more than his legendary skill and powerful Ninjutsu, was his unyielding determination. For him, no matter what kind of odds he faced, giving up was not an option. In everything he did, he gave it his all—and even when he had nothing left to give, he would still muster on."

"Wow," the boy said with a look of reverence on his face, "that's so cool!"

Chuckling, the man rubbed his boy's head, "He sure was," he replied, "for twelve long years he soldiered on alone, fighting to be acknowledged, even if it meant playing the fool. With no friends, no parents and nobody to care whether he lived or died, the boy continued on his path with his head held high until the day he became a ninja and one man—his teacher—acknowledged him for who he was—instead of what he contained within him."

"But there were others too, right Daddy?"

"That's right," he said, "through his hard work, and refusal to give in, the hero found friends who he could believe in—and who believed in him. Eventually, the protection of the people who were precious to him became his reason to fight."

"That's why he was so strong, right Daddy?"

"Yes," the boy's father said seriously, "a man is never stronger than when he is fighting to protect the people that he loves. This was something that the hero understood better than most."

"What about the Akatsuki?" The boy asked, eager to get on with the tale.

"I was getting to that," his father replied, "a hero you see, is not defined by how powerful they are, but by the dangers that they overcome—and few heroes were faced with as many dangers as he was. The most dire of them however, was the criminal organization known as the Akatsuki—a shadowy group that consisted of some of the most powerful ninja in the world—ten men and women whose abilities were almost inhuman. Indeed," the man said, "the members of Akatsuki were monsters…tales of their exploits were more like the tales that mothers would tell to frighten their children than the actions of real people."

"Were they really that strong Daddy?" the boy asked with wide eyes, obviously terrified yet loving every minute of it.

"That and more," the man said, "the Akatsuki was so powerful that it was able to go to war against the combined might of the entire ninja world and very nearly win, but that comes later." Pausing a moment to regain his train of thought, the man continued, "the hero was just a boy when the Akatsuki came for him first, seeking the demon sealed inside of him. Luckily, his teacher saved him, and the Akatsuki's plans were delayed for another three years."

"But that's not all that happened!"

"No it isn't, during the Akatsuki's attack, the hero's best friend and teammate was attacked and traumatized by his older brother—the man who had singlehandedly wiped out his entire clan, except for one. Naturally, this did not did not leave the younger brother unscathed, and the emotional distress resulted in him leaving the village in pursuit of revenge."

"But not if the hero had anything to say about it!"

"That's right," the man agreed, "after so many years alone, our hero took the bonds that he had made with his team very seriously, and saw his teammate as the brother he had never had. After a lengthy chase, the two met at the border of their country and fought a vicious battle. In the end however, the hero pulled his punches to keep from killing his friend and lost the fight—failing in his mission to keep his teammate from defecting in pursuit of vengeance. Making a promise that he would bring his teammate back to Konoha no matter what, the hero left with his teacher for three years in order to gain the strength necessary for the task."

"But his teammate didn't want to come back, did he Dad?"

The man shook his head. "No, he didn't. Even after the hero returned from his training and met his teammate once again, the friend he had once known had transformed into a completely different person—a man consumed by vengeance and with no regard to the bonds he had once shared. Even when he had accomplished his goal by killing his brother, the hero's friend found no peace, instead, he turned on the very village that he had once sworn allegiance to—by seeking it's destruction."

"That's a stupid thing to do!" the boy exclaimed, nose scrunched up in confusion, "Why would he go after his home?"

"The details of his reason are lost to time," the father replied, "but when a man is that consumed by hatred and vengeance, he can find no peace—only a new target to direct his hatred towards. Unfortunately, the masked man, who had remained dormant for years, used this blind hatred to manipulate the boy. With the ninja world already a powder keg thanks to the Akatsuki's activities, the masked man used the boy as the match which caused the tensions to blow into a full blown war—the 4th Great Ninja War."

"But wasn't the war started to protect the remaining bearers of the tailed beasts?"

"Yes and no," the man replied, "while the Akatsuki's goal was the two remaining tailed beasts, the Akatsuki had made itself into a force that the five great nations could no longer ignore—the conflict was inevitable. In the end, either the Akatsuki or the traditional ninja system needed to go. But when the Akatsuki's plan to enslave the world within an endless genjutsu was revealed, the five ninja villages had no choice but to band together to stop the masked man's plans. For a day and night the combined forces of the ninja world fought against the Akatsuki's army of artificially grown soldiers and resurrected ninja, while the hero was safe on a secret island, undergoing training which would grant him mastery over his tailed beast."

"But he wasn't hiding, was he Dad?"

"Not at all." The man explained, "Knowing that there was no way the hero would willingly sequester himself from danger while his friends gave their lives to defend him, his superiors kept the war a secret from him and told him that his time on the island was a mission of great importance. Fortunately for the world, the hero quickly gained control over the nine-tailed fox and with it, obtained the ability to sense malicious intent."

"Huh?"

"He could feel it when people wanted to do bad things."

"Oh."

"Suddenly able to sense the hatred and suffering that the war was causing, the hero rallied the other tailed beast bearer to his cause and they escaped the island before making their way to the warfront where they encountered the masked man in battle. The historical details of the battle are conflicted, but the consensus is this—using the lessons he had learned, and the many friends he had made along the way, the hero managed to defeat the masked man and bring peace to the ninja world at last. He would later become the Hokage and under his rule, Konoha became the capitol of the new Elemental Empire, ushering in a thousand years of peace and prosperity."

"Daddy," the boy asked his father, "what was the great hero's name?"

"His name was Uzumaki Naruto," the man said.

The boy's eyes widened. "But that's my name!" he exclaimed.

The man smiled, "That's no accident," he replied, "while Uzumaki is a pretty common name nowadays, your mother named you Naruto in the hopes that you would grow up to be a man just like the great hero." The man ruffled the boy's hair, picked him up and carried him over to a tiny futon in the center of their small apartment. "But even the great hero needed his rest too, kiddo."

As the tiny boy was tucked into the bed, he yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Daddy," he mumbled in a sleepy voice, "do you really think that I can grow up to be like the great hero?"

"Son," man said as the boy began to drift off into dreamland, "if you believe hard enough, and never compromise in who you are, you can accomplish anything."

(Fifteen Years Later)

"_Konoha,_" Naruto thought to himself as he perched with his squad in the shadows of a rooftop in the southern slums of the sprawling metropolis, "_the greatest city in the world…what a joke._"

For nearly six years now, Naruto had been a fully-fledged member of the ANBU: Konoha's elite ninja police force. Thanks to his tireless and unrivaled work ethic, Naruto had finished at the top of his graduating class from the Konoha Shinobi Academy by a large margin, guaranteeing his position in the most coveted and elite unit of the shinobi corps: the ANBU Black Ops. In theory, the ANBU was supposed to be a task force dedicated to the protection of the citizens of Konoha and the ideals of peace that the Elemental Empire had been founded upon—but Naruto had found during his time as a Black Ops member that in reality, the ANBU was a group of bullies—well armed, _very_ well-trained thugs who acted as the Hokage's personal hit squad. Murder, torture and extortion were everyday parts of the job.

It was in no way what the idealistic young man had signed up for when he had applied to the Academy so many years ago. Thus, it was a welcome relief when his superiors suddenly unexpectedly agreed to transfer him from the coveted elite squad and assign him to the gang unit…under the agreement that he would once again have to work his way back up to the top.

However, Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by an elbow from one of his new teammates, "Look alive hotshot," the man hissed through his black standard issue helmet bearing an engraved leaf symbol, "we're picking up movement on the infrared…this may be our guy."

After glaring at the man ineffectively through his featureless mask, Naruto snapped out of his brooding and shifted his weight in preparation to strike, keeping his eyes on the lone man walking down the street. With a focused burst of chakra, Naruto's helmet caused the image of the potential target to zoom in, revealing a small child with a ridiculously long scarf and a partially hidden tattoo of a flame on the back of his neck. Naruto narrowed his eyes…what the hell was this?

"Target's identity is confirmed," the voice of the squad leader rang through Naruto's earpiece, "surround him and go for the capture, do not kill unless I give the order. Move!" In an instant, the four armored ANBU surrounded the boy and attacked, quickly and brutally knocking him out. "Good work." The leader told the men, "Let's get this little piggy back to interrogation and see if we can't get him to squeal for us."

"What the hell is this?" Naruto demanded, "He's just a kid! He can't be more than six years old!"

"We have our orders Uzumaki. We've been watching this kid for weeks. He's got the mark of the fire gang and is suspected of carrying messages for the gang leader himself—that's information we need."

"No!" Naruto shouted his commanding officer, "I didn't join the police force to torture children, damnit!"

The captain flicked his wrist and produced a kunai that hummed with deadly energy. Pointing it at the rebellious young man he growled in a tone that promised violence. "That's right Uzumaki, you didn't sign up to torture children…you signed up to follow orders. And I'm _ordering_ you to stand down and get the suspect to interrogation…_now_!"

Naruto stiffened in anger, an action that caused the other two members of his squad to palm their weapons as well. "Come on, Uzumaki." One of his teammates said to him, "This little gang brat isn't worth it."

Naruto grit his teeth and shook his head, "I've done a lot of things that I'm not proud of during my time in ANBU…" he said with his eyes to the ground, "I've killed a lot of people who didn't deserve to die…most of them were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." He glanced at the unconscious child for an instant before looking his team leader in the eye. "But despite all of the horrible things that I've done, I've been able to convince myself it was for the good of Konoha—that somehow, I was making the world a better place."

Relaxing slightly, the team leader returned his weapon to its hiding place and gave the other squad members a quick nod which had them put away their weapons as well. He placed an armored hand on Naruto's shoulder, "We know that it's hard sometimes, Uzumaki." He said, "But we _are _making the world a better place…but sometimes that means that we have to get our hands a little dirty—you were in Black Ops, you understand this better than anyone. We have to look at the bigger picture and make compromises for the greater good."

"_Never compromise in who you are…_" Naruto's eyes widened as the memory of his father's words returned to him unbidden. Narrowing his eyes beneath his helmet, Naruto nodded at his squad leader and let out a sigh. "Maybe you're right…" he said, activating his one of his ANBU suit's many offensive systems before delivering an electrified palm strike to the man's chest, causing him to scream in agony and collapse to the ground. "Unfortunately, compromise really isn't my style."

"You're dead, Uzumaki!" One of his remaining teammates screamed before pulling an energy blade and attacking the blond super soldier.

Expecting this thanks to his preemptive strike, Naruto ducked the humming blade and delivered a series of quick counter jabs to his armored enemy's ribs, stunning him long enough for Naruto to dispatch him with an electrified roundhouse kick. Naruto glared at the only remaining ANBU member and fell into a fighting pose, "Looks like it's just you and me now."

"Seems that way." His masked teammate replied before picking up the unconscious child by the collar of his shirt and placing an inactivated energy kunai against the boy's neck. "But unlike you…I have leverage."

Naruto growled, "Put the kid down right now or else an involuntary nap will be the least of your troubles."

The ANBU shook his head, "I suggest you turn yourself in before my finger slips off of the release button and makes one hell of a mess."

Shaking with anger, Naruto deactivated his suit's electrical field and pulled out his pair of ANBU chakra restraints and snapped them onto his hands.

"Good move," the ANBU said, before setting down the child and putting away his blade, "I would have hated to get my suit all dirty. I just had it cleaned yesterday."

"Remember when I said it was just you and me?" Naruto asked conversationally while the other ANBU attempted to rouse his fallen comrades.

"Yeah, why?"

"I lied." From the shadows, a clone burst out and violently struck the hostage taking ANBU before releasing Naruto from the chakra cuffs.

"Ugh…" the man groaned, drifting in and out of consciousness, "when did you?"

"Back when I was making my little speech." Naruto replied after dispelling the clone and shaking his limbs to get his chakra flowing again. "Or did you really think that I would just decide to turn on my team without any form of backup plan?" he scoffed, "I was trained better than that."

"You aren't going to get away with this, traitor!" the ANBU agent growled before Naruto finished him off with a swift kick to the head.

"Actually," Naruto replied to the unconscious man, "I really think that I am." Stooping down to pick up the small boy that had started the whole messy affair Naruto placed him on his shoulder with a grunt, "Alright," he said to the boy, "let's get you out of here."

(A few hours later)

The small boy stirred with a groan and sat up in the makeshift bedding where he was situated. Almost immediately, his world was filled with pain and he let out a whimper. "Take it easy," he heard an unfamiliar voice tell him, "You took quite a beating." The boy looked up and saw a young man with blond hair sitting in a chair next to him. The room that they were in was extremely dirty and rundown and he could hear rats scurrying around inside the walls and even make out a few of them in the dim light of the filthy room.

"Owww…" the boy croaked in a voice choked with pain, "my body hurts!"

"Here," Naruto said, handing the boy a few pills and a cup of water, "these should dull the pain."

The boy took the pills without question and almost immediately felt the pain subside, causing him to sigh in relief.

"Good stuff, huh?" the blond man asked with a wide grin, "I can't even count how many times those babies have saved me from an agonizing night of pain after one of the Academy's training sessions."

"Why are you helping me?" the boy asked again, narrowing his eyes at the black high tech armor the man was wearing, "Only the ANBU have that kind of armor, and the ANBU are bad people."

Naruto frowned. "_So that's what the people think about us, huh_?" He shook his head, "Not necessarily, squirt, I'm ANBU, '_or was, anyways_' and do I seem like a bad guy to you?"

The boy shook his head and looked around, "Where are we?" He asked, "And who are you?"

Naruto grinned, "Right now we're in an abandoned apartment building. Nobody comes here except for the occasional homeless person looking for shelter. We're safe here…for now at least." Naruto clicked his tongue and shook a finger at the bedridden youngster, "and didn't your parents ever teach you that it's rude to ask someone's name without giving yours first?"

The boy looked down, "I never knew my parents," he said, "they were killed in a turf dispute after I was born."

Naruto's grin fell away, "Sorry kid, I didn't mean to upset you."

The boy smiled, "It's ok," he said, "The Fire gang leader took me in when nobody else would. He taught me how to survive in this city, and for that I'm always gonna be grateful!"

Naruto grinned uneasily and ruffled the boy's messy brown hair. "That's great kid!" he replied with forced enthusiasm, "My name is Naruto, what's your name?"

The child gave Naruto a wide gap-toothed grin, "The name's Konohamaru! Nice to meetcha!"

"Likewise!" Naruto replied with a matching smile before becoming serious. "By the way, Konohamaru, do you know why we are here?"

Konohamaru's tiny face scrunched up in thought, "Umm, the last thing I remember, I was running an errand for the boss when a bunch of men surrounded me—then everything went black."

"There is a reason for that Konohamaru…" Naruto told him with a stony expression, "The ANBU has been running surveillance on you for weeks. We…I mean, they know about your connection to the gang leader. If they were able to track you down, it's only a matter of time before they find him as well, and when they do, they are going to kill him, and everyone he has ever associated with."

Konohamaru's eyes widened and filled with tears, "No!" he cried, "They can't do that! The boss is all I have left!"

Naruto placed one hand on the crying boy's shoulder and used the other to lift his chin so that he could make eye contact. "Listen to me very carefully, Konohamaru. The reason that I brought you here and the reason I am telling you this is because I couldn't allow them to torture a child. I couldn't let them torture _you_!" The boys gasped as Naruto squeezed his shoulder a little bit harder than strictly comfortable. Naruto took a breath and loosened his grip on the boy. "Do you understand what I am telling you Konohamaru? I need you to take me to the Fire gang leader because if you don't, the ANBU will find me and kill me too."

"But…but…" Konohamaru stammered through his tears, "The boss said that I can never ever tell anybody else about the hideout. Not ever!"

Naruto nodded at the boy but did not allow him to break eye contact, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to do it anyways, Konohamaru. If you don't bring me there, if you don't let me help…everyone that you know and love is going to be killed without mercy. They will be slaughtered like animals, do you understand?" Now fully sobbing, Konohamaru was unable to respond in words, so he nodded instead. With a sigh of relief Naruto handed the crying child a ratty piece of cloth and his scarf. "Clean yourself up." he ordered, picking his helmet up off of the dirty floor and placing it on his head, transforming his voice into the terrifying mechanical drone shared by all ANBU agents. "We head out in five minutes."

Sure enough, five minutes later, a suited up Naruto was carrying a red-eyed and puffy-faced boy on his back out of the abandoned building. "Alright," Naruto told the boy, "its time for you to take me to this great gang leader that I've heard so much about. Can you direct me there from here?"

Looking around at his surroundings for a moment the tiny boy nodded and tightened his grip on the blond ninja. "Yeah," he replied with a small hiccup, "no problem."

Squeezing his fists in anticipation, Naruto channeled a bit of chakra to his legs and took off like a rocket into the night, sticking to the shadows to avoid any patrolling ANBU that might be nearby. "_For better or worse,_" Naruto thought as he followed Konohamaru's instructions, "_this is going to be my life from now on._" An image of his father's smiling face appeared in Naruto's mind. "_I may have gone astray for awhile there, but from now on, I'll make you proud, Dad._"

(The City of Konoha, Part 1)

In this Future!Konoha, there are many problems which plague the 50 million citizens residing there. Over the years, as the city has grown larger, the position of Hokage has become more and more removed from the common people. Instead of the Will of Fire that the former ninja village was founded upon, a policy of 'might makes right' has taken hold. In a city choked by a high population, a massive poverty rate, and social unrest, the current Hokage rules this metropolis with an iron fist—using his powerful army of high-tech ninja soldiers, the ANBU, to strike fear into the populace.

In addition to the threat posed by the shadowy police force, the streets of this enormous city are a warzone—with five ninja gangs constantly battling for control of the lucrative criminal market, there are very few places that are truly safe.

On the Southern side of the city is the Fire Gang, a mostly benevolent organization whose funds mostly come from the protection racket. For a price, their unusually well disciplined members will lay down their lives to protect paying customers from the incursions of other gangs—as well as the ANBU, a policy that has earned the hostility of the Hokage's totalitarian regime.

Two gangs control the West side, the Earth Gang, which runs the casinos, and the Wind Gang, rulers of the red light district. Realizing that it is in their best interests to have at least some level of cooperation, the two gangs share an uneasy alliance. Together, these gangs pay the ANBU to look the other way and mostly keep to themselves.

The Water Gang runs the East side. Although they are the smallest of the five gangs, what they lack in foot soldiers, they make up for in ruthlessness. To become a full-fledged member of the gang, a brutal initiation must be endured—prospective members are badly beaten, verbally abused and broken down. Throughout this entire process, they are assigned partners who will never leave their side, and when their training is complete, the two must fight each other to the death while the rest of their 'classmates' watch. At the end of this process, they are no loner people, but unhinged human weapons without mercy. The Water Gang controls Konoha's weapons traffic.

The Northern slums belong to the Lightning gang—the most aggressive and ambitious of the ninja criminal groups. With their incredibly aggressive recruiting, their expansionist policies, and total control over the city's drug trafficking, the Lightning gang is by far the most numerous and powerful of the five ninja gangs.

**AN: Well, it has been awhile since I have even tried to do a Naruto related story, but here I am once again. This particular plot bunny came to me in a dream and wouldn't let me go. Anyways, if you have any questions, comments, or criticisms, just utilize that review section below. Time for me to watch some Game Grumps.**


	2. Playing with Fire

Chapter 2: Playing with Fire

(Konoha City Streets, South Side Slums)

In the relative stillness of the night, a dark figure moved in a blur as it slipped from alley to alley, carefully staying within the shadows cast by the towering buildings and avoiding the sparse patches of bright moonlight poking its way through the overcast sky. Suddenly, the figure stopped and placed the misshapen lump on its back—a small child—on the ground.

"Are we here?" Naruto whispered to the boy, all the while taking furtive glances of their surroundings and running infrared scans to make sure that there weren't any unwelcome eyes watching the pair. Satisfied, Naruto turned his helmeted gaze upon the small boy he had picked up.

"Almost," Konohamaru replied, kneeling down to an unassuming manhole and tapping on it in a very specific pattern before the sewer entrance slid open on its own accord and allowed the two access, "there's still a few more checkpoints we need to get through before we're actually inside Fire headquarters."

Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise, "A few more checkpoints?" he repeated as he climbed down the ladder into the dank sewer, "This leader of yours must be a pretty cautious guy."

Konohamaru nodded, a smug expression on his young face, "Yeah, there's nobody smarter than the Boss! That's why those ANBU bastards haven't been able to catch him no matter what they try!" The boy glanced at Naruto, "Uh, no offense."

Naruto ruffled Konohamaru's hair and let out a laugh, "None taken kid," he said, "they ARE bastards, that's why I'm here with you now."

Konohamaru grinned and grabbed his savior by the hand, "C'mon Naruto, it's this way!"

The small boy was able to easily navigate the poorly lit sewer system, leading Naruto through turn after turn of cavernous drainage sluices. "_Clever,_" Naruto thought as he committed the winding route to memory, "_these sewers must be hundreds of years old. With all of the additions and tunnel collapses over time, an accurate map of this place probably doesn't exist. The only way you could possibly find your way around here without getting lost is if you were already familiar with the layout._"

After about twenty minutes of walking, Konohamaru stopped at a wall with the kanji for fire crudely scratched into the brick surface. Scrunching up his face in concentration, Konohamaru reached out and pressed five different bricks on the wall, causing the masonry to slide apart and reveal…a metal door with an intercom on it.

Humming thoughtfully, Naruto reached out with an armored hand and tapped on the door before letting out a whistle at the sound it produced. "Damn," he remarked, "that sucker's gotta be at least 15 centimeters thick." He pulled out an energy kunai and activated it. Thrusting the humming blade at the slab of metal, he swore as the blade unexpectedly skidded off the surface and produced a shower of sparks…with no effect on the door. "That's one hell of a tough alloy." Naruto said appreciatively, "There's no way that anybody's forcing their way through that thing without bringing this whole place down around them."

Konohamaru nodded, "Like I said, nobody's smarter than the Boss!" The boy got up on his tiptoes and pressed the intercom button, "This is Konohamaru reporting back in from my mission! I've got somebody with me too!"

A voice sighed over the intercom, "You were specifically instructed by the Boss to never bring anybody here Konohamaru! How am I going to explain this to him if I just let some unknown person into our _secret_ headquarters?"

Konohamaru bristled and jammed the intercom button again, "I know I wasn't supposed to tell anybody but this is important! While I was up there, my mission was com…com…"

"Compromised?" Naruto supplied to the tongue-tied youth.

"Yeah!" Konohamaru agreed, "My mission was compromised and this guy saved me! If it weren't for him, I'd be getting interrogated by the ANBU right now!"

"…This isn't good." The voice over the intercom said, "the only way they could have known about you is if somebody talked. Come in. The Boss is going to want to hear about this."

With a quiet _swoosh_, the formidable metal door slid open and revealed a long, narrow, and dimly lit passageway. At the sight of the hallway, Naruto tensed up, that place was a veritable kill box. With every passing moment, the blond shinobi's opinion of this mysterious gang leader continued to rise.

"C'mon!" Konohamaru urged, grabbing the tense Naruto's hand, making the former Black Ops member forcibly repress his screaming survival instincts and take a step into the corridor. Konohamaru turned to the incredibly tense Naruto; "You should probably take off your helmet before we go in there." He said, "If they see you in full ANBU gear, it might make them a little bit uneasy."

Naruto nodded stiffly, loathe as he was to remove any of his armor in this hornet's nest, he knew that the boy had a point—a masked stranger in full ANBU armor would almost certainly not go over well. And no matte how skilled Naruto was, even he doubted he could take on an entire base of ninja in such a confined space. With a surge of chakra, Naruto activated his helmet's release and removed the high tech piece of equipment from his head and tucked it under his arm. Soon, the two reached the door at the end of the hallway. "_Well,_" Naruto thought with an unfamiliar sense of resignation, "_here goes nothing I guess…_"

The door to the headquarters slid open and the two stepped through its threshold—then, all hell broke loose.

"ANBU!" the gate guard shouted as he drew a primitive blade and pointed it at Naruto, who dropped his helmet to the ground and held his hands in the air in a conciliatory gesture. Within seconds nearly a dozen other guards, armed to the teeth with a variety of weapons, surrounded him. One of the guards, a distinguished looking young man with pale white eyes and long hair approached the statue still Naruto with his hands raised in an interesting fighting pose that the blond had never seen before. Even more interesting was that he, unlike all of the other guards, carried no weapon.

"Don't even think about moving, ANBU scum!" The young man growled, "If you so much as blink I will drop you in a second!"

"Wait!" Konohamaru cried out, "Captain Neji, Naruto's on our side! He was the one who protected me from getting captured! He has nowhere else to go!"

Neji flicked his pale eyes over to the young boy for an instant before returning his gaze to Naruto. Suddenly, the veins around his eyes bulged outward and his pupils, once invisible, appeared inside his uncanny white irises. "Well, ANBU dog?" the young man asked, "What do you have to say about this?"

"That's pretty much the deal," Naruto agreed, still doing his best not to move, "I was given an order bring Konohamaru in for interrogation and I respectfully disagreed. In the ANBU's eyes, I am a traitor."

Neji stared at Naruto silently for nearly a minute before deactivation his eyes and dropping his fighting stance. "Stand down," he ordered the other guards, "he's telling the truth…as far as I can tell." Naruto let out a small sigh of relief and bent over to pick up his helmet and tucked it under his arm.

"Well alright then," Naruto cheerfully exclaimed, "I'm glad we got that unpleasant business out of the way! I hope that we can put this behind us and be friends!" With a broad smile, Naruto held out his hand in greeting.

Neji sneered at the offered hand, "Don't relax just yet, ANBU dog. Just because you are telling the truth doesn't mean that we are going to help you. Your fate rests in the hands of our leader."

Naruto's smile fell a bit at Neji's open hostility towards him but he quickly recovered his cheerful demeanor. "OK then," he replied, "please lead on!"

Neji growled at the blond's attitude and spun on his heel. "This way!" He barked, marching forward at a brisk pace…then he stopped. "Konohamaru!"

"Yessir, Captain Neji!" Konohamaru chirped, standing at attention.

"Go to your quarters. Wait there until I call for you. We still need to discuss the consequences for defying a direct order in bringing an outsider here."

Konohamaru flinched, "But Captain…"

"Now!" Neji barked, and as quick as if he were shot out of a cannon, the boy was gone. Neji looked back at Naruto and jerked his head at him. "Let's go."

For the next fifteen minutes the two walked in silence, allowing Naruto to marvel at the size of the underground complex. "_Incredible,_" he thought, "_this place is big enough to house thousands of people. But why would a gang with only a few hundred members go to the effort of building a headquarters this large, and where did they get this kind of manpower?_" Looking at the walls, floors, and ceilings of pure stone and their completely uniform dimensions, Naruto's eyes narrowed, "_Doton users_," he realized, "_they used earth techniques to build this place. Incredibly skilled ones too…it's rare to find Ninjutsu this precise outside of Black Ops—if they had made even one mistake, this place would have become their tomb._"

Naruto was further surprised when they passed through a cavernous chamber filled with training equipment and various other ninja related amenities. "_This room…its setup is identical to the ANBU training facility at the Academy! The equipment might be a little shabby and outdated, but there's no mistaking it…these people are familiar with ANBU training practices!_" Naruto put on a shark-like grin with this realization; "_No wonder the Gang unit has been having so much trouble lately._"

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted when he and Neji reached what appeared to be a dead end at the back of another tight hallway. "We're here." Neji announced, giving Naruto a heated glare before knocking on the stone barrier, "The Boss is right through here, whether you live or die, is up to him." The section of wall slid open and Naruto nodded at Neji before stepping forward to enter the office. "Oh," the white-eyed ninja added before the stone wall closed behind Naruto, "I wouldn't suggest trying anything funny either. The Boss is the most powerful ninja I have ever seen by far."

Now trapped inside the mysterious fire gang leader's office, Naruto took a habitual instant to take in his surroundings. The room in which he stood was…surprisingly cozy. The floors were covered in plush carpet. On the right side of the room was a large refrigerator and a very comfortable looking couch, the entire left wall was taken up by a massive bookcase containing thousands of holo-tapes, and in the center of the room was a large wooden desk. Behind this desk was a comfortable looking chair with its back facing Naruto. Over the high back of this chair, Naruto could just make out what appeared to be a tuft of white hair…and was that…_giggling_ he heard?

"_No,_" Naruto thought with a shake of his head, "_I must be just imagining things. Any man as smart and cautious as the leader of the Fire gang wouldn't be giggling in front of a man in ANBU gear that just walked into his secret headquarters._" Naruto cleared his throat.

The chair swiveled around to reveal a masked man in his early forties with gravity defying white hair and a glowing red cybernetic eye watching a pornographic holo-tape. He was giggling perversely and had a lecherous blush on the visible portions of his face.

Naruto's jaw dropped. "_And there goes my respect…_" "Um," Naruto stammered, unsure what to make of this development, "are you…the Boss?"

Lazily looking up from the porn he was watching, the white-haired man snapped the holo-tape shut and let out a loud sigh. "I can never get a moment to myself these days, can I?" He lamented in a drawling lazy tone before stashing away the racy material. Silently, the man looked over the young ninja in front of him with an expression that was unreadable beneath his mask.

Unexpectedly, Naruto found the pressure of this man's scrutiny an almost unbearable weight—the stone office that had once seemed so cozy to him now felt like a cage. Six years of life and death situations in the ANBU Black Ops had honed Naruto's survival instincts to a razor edge, and right now his instincts were screaming at him that crossing this man was a terrible, terrible idea. "_Who the hell is this guy?_" Naruto wondered as he sweated under the man's silent gaze, "_The only other person who freaked me out this much was the ANBU Commander himself!"_

Finally, the man spoke—apparently he had found whatever it was he was looking for in Naruto. "So…" he said in his lazy drawling tone, "you're the ANBU who rescued Konohamaru." Unable to speak, Naruto nodded, "and from the looks of you, you were Black Ops too. Interesting."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, "How'd you…" he began.

"How did I know that you were Black Ops?" the gang leader finished, "Simple, on your way here, you were able to identify every single hidden security camera that you passed; as you walked, your footsteps made absolutely no noise—even on the floors designed to amplify the sound of footsteps; your ANBU armor shows signs of extensive customization—only the Black Ops are allowed to do that; and finally, despite your first impression, you immediately knew that you should fear me."

Naruto blinked at this swift dissection of his abilities and quickly raised his estimation of the masked individual in front of him. "You are mostly right," Naruto admitted, realizing that any attempt to deceive this man would be folly. "I was in Black Ops, but was transferred to the ANBU Gang Division per my request."

"Oh?" The masked man raised his only remaining eyebrow at this information, "Why would a young man with such a promising career as a member of the coveted Black Ops transfer to the ANBU's Gang Division with the bottom of the barrel garbage? And for that matter, why would a former member of Black Ops decide to sign his own death warrant by rescuing some Fire gang brat that he didn't know?"

Naruto grit his teeth, "I joined the ANBU to help people," the young man shook with anger, "all I ever wanted was to be a hero who protected the people who couldn't protect themselves…and for five years I worked myself into the dirt every day in order to achieve that dream." He ran a hand through his blond hair with an expression that was a combination of frustration, rage, and despair, "Then I made into Black Ops and found out that everything that I had ever thought was a lie! The Hokage didn't care about the people, and the ANBU didn't protect anyone! For six years I kept telling myself that everything I was doing was for the greater good, that the people I hurt deserved it, and that I hadn't become everything I hated about the world!" Naruto looked the unreadable gang leader dead in the eyes, "I finally had had enough, and put in a transfer request for the gang division…at least there, I thought I could do some good, you know?" Naruto let out a bitter laugh, "Imagine my surprise when my first mission was to capture a six-year old boy and bring him in to be tortured for information and no doubt killed the moment we had everything we needed."

"So you decided that you had had enough." The man stated. It was not a question, but a simple statement of fact.

"Taking my squad mates down was easy," Naruto added with a tone of dark satisfaction coloring his voice, "they wouldn't have stood a chance against any Black Ops member."

The man's only remaining eye curled up into a shape that could only mean that he was smiling beneath his mask, "No," he agreed, "they wouldn't have." Returning his face back to its normal lazy expression, the man let out a brief hum and then nodded. "Alright, I've heard enough." He said, "You can stay. We're always in need of skilled fighters." He paused for a moment and put a finger to his chin in consideration, "Considering your level of training and experience, you'll start as a Lieutenant. With that rank, you will only answer to me and to Captain Neji. Do you understand?" This speech was delivered in a sharp voice that sounded incredible familiar with command, as opposed to his usual drawling, lazy tone.

In a reflexive motion drilled into him by years of military service, Naruto dropped to one knee and placed his right fist to the ground with a bowed head—the traditional ANBU salute to one's commanding officer. "Understood, sir!" Naruto barked, before blinking and looking up. "Um, by the way…" Naruto asked, "What is your name?"

The white-haired man eye-smiled at the kneeling soldier before him and pulled out his pornographic holo-tape once more. "My name is Hatake Kakashi…it is a pleasure to meet you Naruto."

(Fire Gang Base, Naruto's Quarters)

Naruto paced around his new room—which, besides a small bed, a lamp, and an empty dresser, was completely bare—with disbelief written all over his face. "_Hatake Kakashi…_" he thought as he worked on wearing a groove into the smooth stone floor, "_you have got to be kidding me. He's been alive all of this time?_"

Within the ANBU, Kakashi's name was spoken with awe…the man was a legend. An unparalleled genius that graduated from the Konoha ANBU Academy in just two years, Kakashi joined the Black Ops and quickly rose through the ranks to become the ANBU Commander when he was just seventeen years old. For the next eleven years, under Kakashi's leadership, crime, civil unrest, and gang violence were reduced to levels that hadn't been seen in nearly five hundred years. His reputation was such that it wasn't long before whispers of Kakashi becoming the next Hokage began to circulate amongst the public. And then suddenly, Kakashi disappeared without a trace.

The people went wild over the disappeared ANBU commander, and theories ranging from the impossible to the absurd were tossed about. Some believed that the gangs that his ANBU were gradually stamping out of existence had murdered Kakashi in an act of desperation. Others believed that Kakashi, overwhelmed by the stress of the job and the things he had done in Konoha's service, had taken his own life. Another theory was that Kakashi had had enough of the job and simply fled Konoha to never return again. However, most people believed that the Hokage had ordered his assassination, fearing that his brilliant ANBU Commander coveted the position enough to arrange a transfer of power.

"_And he's been sitting here in Konoha this entire time, right under everyone's noses, running one of the city's most notorious gangs. Unbelievable._" Naruto's ruminations on the revealed identity of the Fire gang leader were interrupted by a knock on his door. "Who is it?" Naruto called out after positioning himself in the blind spot behind the door and palming one of his kunai.

"May I come in?" a soft, female voice rang out, "the Boss told me to bring some new clothes for you."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and gripped his kunai tightly in anticipation of attack. Paranoia had served the young man well in his years. "Sure!" he called out in a bright voice that contrasted with the dark expression on his face, "the door is unlocked!"

"Ok," the girl said before entering with a bundle of clothes and looking around the seemingly empty room with confusion on her face, "where did you go?"

"Right here." Naruto replied, putting away his weapon and stepping out from the shadows of his hiding place after determining that the girl was no threat.

"Eep!" the girl squeaked as she spun around to face the black armored shinobi who had been prepared to kill her. She let out a shaky breath and blushed, "You startled me!" She scolded him in her soft voice.

"Sorry," Naruto replied with a grin as he scratched the back of his head, "this is still a pretty unfamiliar place to me and old habits die hard, you know?"

The girl let out a huff and placed the pile of clothes on the dresser before turning around and glaring at the blond with her hands on her hips and a slight blush still coloring her cheeks. "W-well, that's no excuse." she replied in a flustered voice, doing her best to maintain the angry stare that she was directing at the smiling blond.

"_She's pretty cute,_" Naruto idly thought to himself as he subtly looked over the young woman who was miserably failing to give him a dressing down, "_those eyes of hers are pretty exotic too, I've only ever seen eyes like that…on…Captain…Neji._" "What's your name?" Naruto asked, interrupting her attempt to scold him.

"M-My name?" she stammered, caught off guard by the sudden question and the thorough derailing of her train of thought, "It's…um, my name is…uh…Hinata. Hyuga Hinata." The pale-eyed girl flushed, "W-what's your name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto at your service," Naruto replied with a grin and a bow, making the poor girl flush an even deeper shade of red. He chuckled, "You don't get out much, do you Hinata?"

"Umm…uh…I…"

Naruto held up a hand, "Yeah, I thought so. By the way, do you happen to know a guy…long hair, pale eyes like yours, bad attitude, goes by the name of Neji?"

Hinata nodded, finally managing to get herself under control. "Of course I do," she replied, "Neji is the top ranked officer here, just below the Boss, and besides that, he's my cousin. When both of our parents were killed in a turf war, he was the one who looked after me." She looked down unhappily, "I love my cousin very much, but he is so over protective that everybody here is afraid to talk to me…I don't have very many friends because of it." She gave Naruto a shy smile and blushed, "In fact, you're first guy besides the Boss who has talked to me in a long time…"

One of the talents that Naruto had honed during his tenure as member of ANBU was his ability to review the pros and cons of the tactical decisions he had to make in an instant. "_There are two potential courses of action in this situation._" Naruto thought in a flash, "_Option A: In consideration of my already tumultuous relationship with my only direct superior besides the leader of this entire organization, I discontinue any contact with this girl in order to prevent any further hostilities between us. Option B: I act as an oasis of companionship, and rescue a lonely, smoking hot girl from isolation and really get under the skin of the pale-eyed dickbag who threatened to kill me and hates my guts for no apparent reason._"

Naruto considered all of this in less than a second as he continued to give the blushing beauty his most charming grin. In a fit of shyness, she looked down and poked her two index fingers together in what may have been the most adorable gesture he had ever seen. "_Option B it is." _Naruto decided, his smile turning vindictive for a split second, "_Neji can pull out the gigantic stick he has up his ass and shove it right back up there again!_"

Naruto gently wrapped his hands around Hinata's, causing her to squeak in surprise. "Well, that's just criminal," he told her in a voice full of sympathy, "a young woman as beautiful as you should have guys fighting for a chance to talk to you!"

Hinata turned crimson. "T-There's no way that's true!" she stammered, looking away from Naruto's shining blue eyes. "There's no way someone like me is b-beautiful."

"Hinata…" Naruto replied in a voice full of emotion, "look at me, please." As she had been asked, Hinata returned her gaze to Naruto's face and their eyes met once more, "Trust me when I say that I have never seen a girl as heart-poundingly lovely as you. Even though this place is underground, you are like a radiant star that fills these dark halls with your beautiful light!"

"_OK, that one may have been a little bit too much…" _Naruto thought as the girl whose hands he held turned the shade of a tomato, "…_Uh, never mind, I guess. Damn, that was corny as hell, but she looks like steam is about to come out her ears._"

"I…uh…um…ah…" Broken by the unexpected praise, and _extremely_ unused to the attention from the opposite sex, Hinata had been reduced to a stuttering wreck…indeed, it _did_ look like steam was on the verge of coming out of her ears.

Deciding to give the poor girl a break Naruto led Hinata to his door and gave her a smile, "I'm really very sorry, Hinata," he said in his most apologetic voice, "I would love to talk with you more, but it has been a _very_ long day, and I need to get out of this armor and get some shuteye." Hinata nodded numbly at Naruto's words and shuffled like a zombie out the door and into the hallway. "Oh, and Hinata!" Naruto called, leaning out of his open door, causing the flustered girl to pause, "If you ever feel like you need a friend, my door is open!"

Hinata nodded and walked away, absently hearing the door close behind her. It was a few minutes before she realized what Naruto had said to her as she left his room in a daze. "_A…friend?_" she thought, somewhat sadly, "_But he said I was beautiful! But he also said he was here for me as a friend! Does he like me or not?_" Such confused thoughts continued to echo through the lonely girl's head that night until sleep finally took her.

Meanwhile, Naruto stood in his room, removing his ANBU armor piece by piece with a satisfied smile on his face. "Well, that was fun!" he said out loud, before shaking his head, "But that girl seriously needs to get out more…that was _way_ too easy." Finally removing the last bit of his armor, Naruto let out a loud yawn and stretched his body. "Ahhhhh," he sighed in relief before falling onto his bed face up, "there's nothing quite like getting out of your armor when you've been stuck in it for a long time."

Glancing over at the neatly piled suit that had identified him as a member of the ANBU for more than a quarter of his life, Naruto couldn't help but think about the decisions that had led him to this place. "_I can't believe that I threw away I've accomplished in the last eleven years, because I couldn't shut up and let them take some brat. The oath I swore to the Corps, my future, my home, it's all gone. But even with all of that gone, I feel…at peace. I feel more at peace with myself than I have in years. _" Naruto looked away from his armor and stared at the ceiling in silence for a few minutes before grinning. "That's right," Naruto exclaimed to the empty room, placing his hands behind his head and letting out a relaxed sigh, "there's nothing quite like it."

(The City of Konoha, Part 2)

The ANBU

With the streets of this enormous city overrun with powerful gangs of ninja, it is a wonder that the Hokage manages to keep any semblance of control at all. The reason why is simple: The ANBU Corps. Comprised mostly of orphans—the ANBU recruits young, preferring malleable young minds with plenty of time to have the shinobi discipline beaten into them. The maximum age for enrollment in the Konoha Ninja Academy is twelve, which means that Naruto just barely made the cutoff. Combining the ancient shinobi training methods with cutting edge scientific research, the regiment that these young men and women are put through is brutal, ruthless, and extremely effective. The few who survive the first year of training are augmented with cybernetics to increase their strength and speed to inhuman levels. Those who are deemed to have exceptional talent are injected with experimental chemicals that dramatically increase the potency of their chakra, becoming human weapons worthy of being called "Super-Soldiers".

However, while the members of the ANBU are formidable, their superior training and enhancements are not the only advantage they possess. Another powerful asset that this military police force boasts is its technological superiority. With high tech weaponry like their energy blades—swords, kunai, and shuriken that, when activated, vibrate at an extremely high frequency that allow these weapons to punch a holes through steel with very little effort.

Despite the powerful weaponry at their disposal, it is the ANBU's armor which is their most iconic feature. Jet black, and composed of extremely strong chakra sensitive metal, the ANBU armor is powered by the chakra of the individual it belongs to—if anybody but the person the armor is registered to attempted to wear it, the armor would immediately drain the thief's chakra and release a powerful electrical current, instantly frying them from the inside out. The armor possesses many features invaluable to the ANBU inside of it: it contains powerful hydraulics, which further augment the wearer's already inhuman strength; a cloaking device which renders the wearer nearly invisible in poor light; chakra converters which allow the user to convert their raw chakra into any of the five elemental chakras and use Ninjutsu outside of their elemental affinities. The terrifyingly featureless helmet contains a breathing apparatus that not only protects against gas attacks, but allows the ANBU to operate underwater as well; in addition, it possesses a telescopic zoom function, video recording function, night vision, and infrared. The mere sight of this armor strikes fear into the hearts of many of the gangs and criminals in Konoha.

The ANBU Corps is comprised of four divisions: the Gang Division, the Intelligence Division, the Police Division, and the ANBU Black Ops.

The Gang Division, as the name suggests, is charged with handling the massive gang problem in Konoha. It is the largest division of the ANBU Corps and it is made up of the ANBU who were good enough to graduate, but not good enough for anything else. While the average member of the ANBU Gang Division is still a force to be reckoned with, they are considered the 'bottom of the barrel' within the Corps.

The Intelligence Division is the Hokage's personal army of spies. Specializing in stealth, not combat, this division of ANBU works tirelessly to ferret out the city's dirty little secrets, allowing the Hokage to blackmail the people that he can't merely intimidate into doing what he wants.

The Police Division is perhaps the most benevolent of the ANBU Divisions. Their only task is to maintain the peace and order of Konoha's affluent midtown. The Police Division is comprised of many of the better ninja produced by the Academy. On the rare occasions that the gangs have attempted to press into the Police Division's territory, they have been quickly terminated.

The smallest of the ANBU divisions is the ANBU Black Ops. Over a thousand years old, membership to this coveted fraternity is reserved for the best of the best. Only the top two members of each class of graduating shinobi stand a chance of entering the fold. Once admitted, the training is intensified, the tech that they have access to improves—and the missions are classified. Each and every member of the Black Ops is powerful enough to take on multiple lower ranked ANBU with ease.

**AN: I'm feeling pretty good about this—each chapter keeps getting easier and easier to write. We've got some character development for Naruto, Kakashi, Neji, and Hinata are now in the picture, and Naruto has just begun his life as a new member of the Fire gang. As always, if you have any comments, questions, or criticisms, please direct them to the review box below these author's notes. Peace out.**


	3. Making Acquaintences

Chapter 3: New Acquaintances

**AN: I have been told that putting thoughts in quotation marks is confusing, so from now on, all thoughts will be written as free floating italics instead. **_Like this._

(Fire Gang Compound, Morning)

When Naruto opened his eyes after his first night in the underground fortress, he forgot where he was for a brief moment. Leaping from his cot, the highly trained ninja went on high alert, searching the room for threats and avenues of escape. _Oh_, he thought when he saw his neatly piled armor in the corner of the room, _that's right…I live here now_.

Feeling his stomach grumble, Naruto walked over to his armor and picked up the chest plate in order to begin the arduous process of strapping it on before stopping and glancing over to the pile of clothes that had been brought to him the night before. _If I want to have any chance of fitting in here I should ditch the armor for now._ _Infiltration 101: Don't stand out. Besides, I won't need it in here._

Naruto put the armor down and walked over to the dresser to see what Hinata had brought him the night before. Picking up a shirt that seemed to be his size, Naruto squinted at the fabric in the dim light, unable to tell what color the garment was. Walking over to the lantern and increasing its power, Naruto flooded the small room with light and scowled once he got a good look at the clothes in his hand.

_Orange. I hate orange. It's an eyesore, and it sticks out like nothing else. _Naruto's scowl grew more and more intense as he quickly shuffled through the clothes neatly piled on the dresser. _All of it is orange! Every last shred of clothing that they brought me!_ Naruto had the distinct feeling that this was his new boss's idea of a joke. _Well, I'm not laughing. _He thought with a sour expression before putting them on, although he did find them to be surprisingly comfortable.

His stomach growling insistently, Naruto realized that staying in his room simply because of some ugly clothes wasn't a feasible course of action and so he set out in search for the dining hall. Since nobody had bothered to show him around the compound in full before he was escorted to his new living quarters though, Naruto found himself searching the massive underground complex in vain. Finally, when spotted a portly man with wild red hair Naruto rubbed his hands in anticipation. _That guy looks like he's very well acquainted with food, if he can't help me then nobody can._ "Hey!" he called out to the man, "I'm new here and I need to get to the mess, can you show me the way?"

The portly man blinked at the bright orange clothing that Naruto was wearing, and then saluted him. "Sure thing Lieutenant Uzumaki! I was on my way there anyways, you can follow me!"

Naruto blinked. "How do you know who I am already? I've only been a member of this team for ten hours, tops."

"Everyone was briefed on you earlier this morning." the portly man replied.

_What. _Naruto held out his hand in greeting and smiled, "Well in that case, I think that you have me at a disadvantage here…"

"Choji," the big man replied with a friendly smile of his own, accepting the offered handshake with an alarmingly powerful grip, "Akimichi Choji! As fate would have it, I've actually been assigned under your care. Pleased to meet you!" With those pleasantries out of the way, the two men began their walk to the mess hall.

"I've got to say," Naruto mentioned conversationally, "I'm impressed that you were able to recognize me with just a glance, that briefing must have been very thorough."

"Uh, no, not especially. We were only told the basics, really."

"Then how did you…" Naruto began, and then narrowed his eyes. _Oh you son of a whore._

"We were just told to look for orange. We didn't really get it at first, but we just figured that it was the Boss being the Boss. He sure is brilliant, but he's a strange one."

Naruto sighed, _So much for me introducing myself around on my terms. I just became highly visible around here…in more ways than one._ "Say Choji," Naruto asked the friendly man, "in my experience, I've found that almost nobody ever spoke with their commanding officers any more than strictly necessary—nobody wanted to inadvertently ruffle the feathers of someone who could make your life miserable, you know?"

Choji nodded in understanding, "I guess that makes sense," he replied, unsure of where his new superior was going with this, "but why bring it up?"

"I was just wondering if that were the case here as well."

Choji put his hand to his chin and adopted a thoughtful expression. "I guess it depends," he replied sincerely, "my Dad always told me that if I treat everyone the way that I would like to be treated, then I'd never go wrong." Sheepishly, he scratched his head, "Though that policy hasn't always worked with everybody, I still try and treat everyone the same…whether they outrank me or not."

_What on earth is a softhearted guy like this doing in one of the city's most feared gangs?_ Naruto wondered, _I'd be amazed if he could hurt a fly with an attitude like that!_ "Well that's…uh, admirable." Naruto replied.

"Thanks," Choji said, "that's just me though. As to other people avoiding the officers, pretty everyone here is terrified of Captain Neji, and tread lightly when he's around."

"Why does that not surprise me in the least?" Naruto replied in a dry tone, "The guy is so moody and high strung it's like he took a dozen battle stimulants and got punched in the junk."

Choji let out a boisterous laugh at the rather apt description of the pale-eyed warrior. "HA! That's a good one" he declared, "…but I would be careful about who you say things like that around. Remember that bit you said about ruffled feathers?" Naruto nodded, "Well, Neji is one man who you do _not_ want to ruffle if possible."

"Thanks for the warning," Naruto answered with a cocky grin, "but I'm pretty sure that I can handle Captain Sunshine just fine. No matter what he throws at me, I've already been through worse. If there is one thing that my time in ANBU has made me great at besides violence, it's dealing with my superior's bullshit."

At the mention of Naruto's ANBU background, the amicable conversation between the two men ground to a screeching halt. An awkward silence permeated the air between them, drawing out the painful minutes like a blade as they continued their journey to the mess. What was worse, Naruto kept catching Choji sneaking speculative glances at him with an odd expression on his chubby face.

A little unnerved by the big man's sudden change in demeanor, Naruto stopped in his tracks and gave Choji an annoyed glare. "What?" he snapped in a tone that was a bit harsher than he had intended. "If you've got a problem with me being ex-ANBU, just spit it out!"

Choji quickly waved his hands in denial, "It's not that Lieutenant!" he exclaimed, "I already knew that you were a member of the Black Ops before you joined us, and I don't think less of you because of it! It's just..."

"Just what?" Naruto inquired, honestly curious about what the unusually friendly man had to say.

Rubbing his chin, Choji furrowed his brow in thought. "How do I put this…" he mused. "When I was told earlier this morning that my new Lieutenant used to be ANBU Black Ops," Choji began, "I really didn't know what to expect. Whenever I would hear something about the Black Ops, it reminded me of the stories that my parents scared me with when I was a little kid. I know almost nothing about them, but what I've been told made them seem more like monsters than people." Naruto suppressed a wince at the blunt explanation, but nodded in understanding. Choji scratched the back of his head, "But then I see you and you're just a normal looking guy! You complain about your superiors, joke around, and get lost in new places like anybody else!"

"So what's the deal then?" Naruto asked, "If I'm just like anybody else to you, then me being ex-ANBU shouldn't matter."

"It doesn't matter," Choji said, "in fact, until you brought it up, I had completely forgotten about the whole ANBU thing! I guess that it's just hard for me to reconcile my image of what the Black Ops is with the reality of meeting you. It's hard to imagine you being capable of any of that."

Naruto hummed thoughtfully for a second. "I suppose that makes sense," he conceded to his hefty subordinate, "do you think that this will pose a problem for me when it comes to the others?" _Because if you of all people were put off by my past, _Naruto brooded silently, _then pretty much certain that everyone else will as well._

"Probably," Choji replied honestly, "but I wouldn't worry about the others too much, they're good people. I'm sure that if they spend a few minutes talking to you like I have, then they'll come around sooner or later."

Satisfied with this answer, Naruto grinned at Choji and lightly clapped him on his broad back, "You're right!" he said in a cheerful tone, "It's pointless to worry about it right now anyways! My empty stomach is a much more pressing concern!"

Choji beamed at Naruto, "Now there's a man who's got his priorities in order!" he exclaimed, "I have a feeling that you and me are going to get along just fine!" Now bonded through the power of hunger, the two fast friends continued their quest for sustenance in a comfortable silence completely unlike the one that had preceded it. As they grew closer to the mess, the two were gradually able to make out the unmistakable cacophonous buzz of hundreds of voices engaging in conversation.

Before the noise grew too loud for quiet discourse, Choji turned to Naruto and said, "I gotta admit, meeting you has really put me more at ease."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this, "Really?" he asked, "How so?"

"Well, over the last five years or so, ANBU has been cracking down harder and harder on us in particular since we are the only ones in the city who have openly stood up to them. The rumor going around right now is that we have a spy—somebody had to tip them off about Konohamaru…I mean who in their right mind would suspect that a little kid is running messages for the gang leader?"

Naruto scowled, he wasn't particularly happy about them using children for gang activities in the first place. _That reminds me, I need to have a word with Kakashi about that little piece of business. _"That doesn't make sense," Naruto disagreed, "if there really was a spy, he or she would have skipped the middleman and led the ANBU straight here. They wouldn't have bothered sending them after Konohamaru. When I stopped them from taking him, they had said that they had watched him for weeks. He must have been discovered because of the increased surveillance of the area."

Choji shook his head, "Not at all, the only people who know how to reach our headquarters and get through the checkpoints are our messengers, like Konohamaru, and everybody above the rank of Sergeant. Even _I_ don't know how to get here. Everybody knows about Konohamaru though, and if they know about him…"

"Then they know that if anybody in this organization can be broken, or tricked into revealing the location of the base, it's him." Naruto concluded. "Come to think of it," he added, "I was pretty surprised at how easily I convinced him to bring me here. It worked out in this case, I suppose, but the whole situation with the ANBU could have easily been a ruse to gain his trust." The two men shuddered at the thought…if the gang unit had tried the same thing Naruto accomplished, every person in this base would be as good as dead—it was only a matter of when.

Shaking the disquieting notion out of his head for the moment, Naruto looked at his new friend. "So how exactly does meeting me make you feel better?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, if someone like a former Black Ops member is a nice person, and not some unstoppable boogieman, then it means that we are facing men, not monsters. Men can be defeated."

Naruto's face darkened. "Sorry to disappoint you, Choji." he muttered, "But we _are_ monsters."

Choji was taken aback at this uncharacteristic bitterness from the cheerful man. "What do you mean by that?"

"You'll see." Naruto replied as he walked into the chattering mess hall. Seconds after Naruto's orange clad form appeared in the doorway, the large stone chamber grew silent. Without breaking stride, he walked past the scores of dead silent gang members. Grabbing a tray and a bowl, he walked over to a frozen server standing over a large boiling pot. "What's in the pot?" Naruto asked, in a perfectly normal tone of voice.

The server blinked her brown at the sound of Naruto's voice and stared at him blankly for a brief moment before what he had said registered in her mind.

"O-Oh!" she stammered, "it's um, Miso ramen."

"What's that?" Naruto asked her.

"Noodles in a fish broth."

"Huh," he replied, "I think I'll give it a try." Naruto held out his bowl, received his bowl of ramen, turned around after thanking the server girl, walked to an open space at one of the many crowded tables and sat down. Almost immediately, the nearby gang members dispersed one by one, leaving a gaping empty area where he now sat. Picking up his chopsticks, the young man broke them apart and dug in, picking up a strand of steaming hot noodles with his wooden utensils, blowing on it, and taking a bite.

"Holy SHIT!" Naruto yelled, making many members of the silent crowd scream in surprise and terror. "This is the most delicious thing that I have ever tasted in my life!" Gesturing to the gang members around him, he pointed at the bowl in amazement. "Has anybody else tried this stuff?"

Fighting down the urge to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, Choji grabbed his own bowl of ramen and joined the orange clad ninja at the deserted table, breaking the silence of the crowd and causing quiet murmurs to ripple outward through the packed hall. "I've never met a monster who was this fond of ramen." He joked, snapping apart his own pair of chopsticks and digging in to his meal as well.

"That's probably just because they haven't tried it yet." Naruto replied, dead serious. "I think that I've fallen in love Choji." Naruto polished off his bowl and let out a satisfied sigh before returning to the returning to the young brunette for more.

"Miss…" Naruto began with a faraway look on his face, "what you have just given me has changed my life forever. Before you give me another bowl, please, give me your name."

Not really sure what to make of the situation, the young woman nervously fiddled with her apron. "Umm…my name is Ayame." She answered, "And…thanks, I guess."

Holding out his bowl, Naruto gave the girl a beaming smile. "If you ever need help with anything," he told her, "don't hesitate to ask me. I owe you a greater debt than you could possibly know."

Ayame gave Naruto a somewhat forced smile, "Uh…OK?" she replied, before refilling his bowl.

After thanking her once again, Naruto returned to his seat to find an extremely amused Choji. "I'm a pretty big fan of ramen too," the large man commented, "but I've never seen somebody have quite as…positive of a reaction as you."

Naruto held up a finger in response as he shoveled a heaping mass of noodles into his mouth, and swallowed. "It may have something to do with the fact that the only food that I've had for the last eight years are super calorie-dense nutrient bars. They do the job, but are a little lacking on the taste front. I just didn't realize how much they were lacking until just now."

Choji was horrified. "_Nutrient bars_!" he exclaimed in the exact same tone of voice as if he had been talking about murdering infants. "The _only _things you've eaten in eight years are _nutrient bars_!"

After draining his second bowl of broth, Naruto nodded. "One of the side effects of the process of becoming an ANBU is that your body's metabolism is supercharged. In order to operate at optimum levels, we need to consume around ten thousand calories a day, minimum. Not even considering the cost of the food, unless we want to spend around three hours a day just eating, they're pretty much the only choice we have."

Choji reached across the table and placed a consoling hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

Naruto waved his hand at Choji's concern, before getting up to retrieve another bowl. "Don't worry about it," he said once he had returned. "What's done is done. Although," he added with a slightly concerned expression on his face, "I probably should have considered the food problem before coming here. If I had really thought it through, I would have gone to my apartment and picked up my food stash. Eating as much as three normal adults might prove to be a problem for this place in the long run."

Choji shook his head, "I wouldn't worry about it too much." He assured him, "We've got people in most of the food warehouses throughout the city. They fix the books and make sure we has as much food as we'll ever need, and in exchange, we provide our services free of charge, should the need arise."

"So you think that they'll be able to get me some of those nutrient bars?"

Choji looked at Naruto like he was crazy. "You still want the bars? You can finally have as much real food as you want."

"Remember what I said about the whole three hours a day thing?"

"Oh, good point, although that doesn't seem like much of a drawback to me."

The two men continued to eat and chat for another twenty minutes, all the while getting up for more and more ramen. Additionally, the shock factor of Naruto's presence had finally decreased enough for the rest of the gathered gang to restart their conversations, filling the room again with noise. Eventually, a loud buzzer went off and the assembled men and women began to file out of the large room.

"Where's everybody going?" Naruto asked Choji as the large man put his tray and bowl away with a forlorn expression on his face.

"It's training time," he replied, "unless we have a mission, every active soldier is required to report to their assigned training area for a minimum of six hours a day."

_Damn, _Naruto thought, _I'm still hungry._ "How do you know which area you're assigned to?" he asked, feeling more and more annoyed with his new superiors for not telling him any of this information.

"You can just follow me." Choji told him, "Every Platoon is assigned it's own training area, and since you're my new Lieutenant, you'll be assigned to training room 7."

"You know, it's funny." Naruto remarked as he stowed his dinnerware as well.

"What's funny."

"When I left the Black Ops for my brief tenure as a member of the ANBU Gang Division, I was briefed on all of the five major gangs."

"OK." Choji said, not sure where his new friend was going with his story.

"The information that I received about this organization was that it was just a protection racket, an unusually disciplined group of hoodlums with some ninja training and no respect for authority. But everything I've learned about this place and the way the commander runs it makes it seem less like he's running a gang and more like he's building an army."

Choji grinned, "If that's what the ANBU thinks about us, that's fine with me. They can call us thugs, hoodlums, or criminals all day, but it doesn't change what we really are or the cause that we fight for."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "What are we then?"

"We're soldiers. And we fight to protect our home. Now let's go," Choji said, "if we don't hurry, we're going to be late to training."

"Lead on then."

(Fire Headquarters, Training Room 7)

Following Choji through the massive underground base once again, Naruto was led to an enormous chamber very similar to the training facility he had seen on the way to Kakashi's office when he arrived. Waiting inside the cavernous room were sixteen men and women of varied ages, gathered together in groups of four and chatting amongst themselves while performing basic warm-ups for the training session ahead. In a replay of what had occurred in the mess, the entire congregation froze in place and silence fell over them all.

With a deadpan look, Naruto turned to Choji, "This isn't going to happen _every _time I walk into a room is it?"

Choji shrugged helplessly and patted Naruto on the shoulder. "Just give it a little time. I'm going to join my squad. You should introduce yourself and decide what we are going to work on today."

Naruto nodded, then did a double take, when Choji's words registered in his brain. "Wait, what?"

Jogging over to the only group missing a person, Choji gave Naruto a thumbs up. "You'll do fine!"

_Crap, _Naruto thought as he stared at the silent ninja in front of him, _the only kind of training that I know how to do is the ANBU kind…and it's seriously unsafe for normal people. Hell, it's unsafe for ANBU!_ He sighed, _Seriously, why is nobody telling me this stuff beforehand!_

"Um, hello," Naruto said with a wave, "my name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm your new Lieutenant…though I'm guessing you already knew that, didn't you?" His new platoon nodded. "Right," he said, annoyance leaking into his voice, "of course you did."

Naruto clapped his hands, making a couple of the tenser ones jump a little in surprise. "First things first, I feel like we should address the elephant in the room. It's true that until very recently I was a member of the ANBU Black Ops. It is also true that whether you like it or not, I am now your commanding officer. Ideological differences aside, I have seen virtually no difference in the way that this organization is run from the ANBU." Naruto paused for a second as several people drew in sharp breaths after being compared to the hated police force. "In the ANBU, commanding officers are charged with three main duties: ensuring that their assigned tasks are completed as ordered, maintaining discipline within the ranks, and most importantly, making sure that the men under their command return alive and unharmed from every mission."

Making eye contact with each and every one of his new soldiers, Naruto took a breath and continued, "I left the ANBU because I couldn't allow a child to be tortured for information. I'm here now, because when I made the decision to protect a little boy that I knew nothing about, I not only became a traitor to the state, I also threw away everything I have ever worked for and everything I have ever achieved…and I would do it again in a heartbeat."

Finished with his speech, Naruto cleared his throat and stood there awkwardly before the silence of his new platoon was broken by the sound of applause. _Wow, _he thought, _I'm not really sure what kind of reaction I was expecting from that but it definitely wasn't applause._

After the applause had died down, a stocky bearded man who appeared to be in his early thirties approached Naruto with three other people in tow and extended his hand to Naruto, "The name's Sarutobi Asuma." He said, "I'm the First Sergeant of this Platoon, leader of Squad One, and your new second in command."

"It's a pleasure." Naruto replied, taking the offered hand.

"Nice speech by the way," Asuma complimented, "pretty much everyone in our big happy family has a soft spot for Konohamaru. What you did for him really means a lot to us."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Really?" he asked skeptically, "If it's such a big deal, then why is everyone giving me the silent treatment? I thought they were scared of me…or hated me because I was ANBU or something. I know Neji does. I just figured it was the same thing."

The bearded man shook his head, "Nah," he said, "it's not that. Captain Neji's a special case. It's true that none of us here are very fond of the Hokage's personal army of juiced up thugs—no offense."

"None taken."

"The Captain just takes it to a whole other level, the prevailing theory is that he has some kind of personal vendetta, but nobody really knows for sure. He's not really one for socializing."

"Shocking." Naruto muttered sarcastically, "If it's not because people hate me, then why is everyone acting like this?"

The man chuckled, "The silence and the stares are because we've never heard of an ANBU going rogue like you did. Until now, most of us didn't even think they _could_ go rogue. We thought you were all brainwashed drones or something."

_What?_ Naruto thought, _But their leader is a former ANBU Commander! Do they not know who Kakashi really is?_ "Actually," Naruto admitted, "a lot of the ANBU _are_ pretty much brainwashed drones. The only reason that I'm not like that too is because they got me a lot older than most of their recruits. If I were only a few days older, I wouldn't have made the age cutoff for acceptance. I wouldn't get your hopes up about more ANBU like me coming out of the woodwork."

Asuma shrugged nonchalantly, "Wasn't planning on it. The people behind me are your other Sergeants. I'll let them introduce themselves."

The first to step forward was a middle-aged man with a bowl cut and a green outfit nearly as bad as the one Naruto was being forced to wear. With a large smile, the man grabbed Naruto's hand an enthusiastically shook it. "My name is Maito Guy!" he exclaimed at a volume that was just barely below a shout, "It is my honor to be the leader of the youthful Squad Two! I am filled with joy to meet a man who burns so brightly with the fires of youth!"

"I'm not really sure what that means, but it's nice to meet you too, I guess." Naruto replied while giving Asuma a questioning glance, which was answered with a shrug.

Next, a dark haired woman around the same age as Asuma with striking red eyes stepped forward and shook his hand with a cool expression on her face. "My name Sergeant Yuhi Kurenai, sir. I'm the leader of Squad Three."

_Well that was incredibly professional._ Naruto mused, not unappreciatively after his experience with the eccentric squad leader that had come before her. _I guess they come in all kinds down here._

The final squad leader to approach him was woman about Naruto's age with her hair styled up into a spiky ponytail. After giving her new boss the once over, she cocked her hip and gave him a crooked grin before offering her hand. "Mitarashi Anko, it's a pleasure to meet you, handsome." She purred, before giving Naruto a wink, "I'm in charge of Squad 4."

Naruto fought back the urge to smile as he shook Anko's hand and ignored the snickers coming from Asuma and the huff of righteous indignation from Kurenai. "It's very nice to meet you too." He replied in an even tone.

"Anko!" Kurenai scolded, "How many times have I told you that you can't flirt with your commanding officers! Show some decorum for goodness sake!"

Anko pouted childishly at her older, more professional colleague, "Oh come on, Kurenai! You need to learn to loosen up a little!" With a teasing grin she playfully elbowed the dark haired officer, "Maybe if you got laid once in a while, you wouldn't always be so uptight!"

Kurenai gasped, scandalized by the lewd suggestion. "What! How dare you! And is this _seriously_ the kind of impression you want to make on your new Lieutenant after _just_ meeting him!"

Anko put a finger to pursed lips and rolled her lavender eyes upward in mock contemplation. "Hmmm," she hummed, before nodding, "yep! I'm pretty sure that it is!" she exclaimed brightly, "Thanks for asking though!" Kurenai let out strangled growl of annoyance before launching into a tirade.

During this exchange, Naruto leaned over to Asuma, who was quietly chuckling as the scene unfolded before them. "Does this kind of thing happen often?" he whispered to his bearded second in command.

"Almost constantly," Asuma replied with a grin, "watching those two go at it is probably the closest thing we have to entertainment around here."

"Will it be a problem?" Naruto asked, "I can't afford to have my officers fighting amongst themselves."

Asuma shook his head, "Not at all," he assured him, "it may not seem like it, but those two are actually very close. Anko is like a daughter to Kurenai, and Kurenai is the closest thing to a parent that Anko has ever had. When comes down to it, I can't think of anybody in the entire organization who work together better than those two."

Naruto let out a sigh of relief, "That's good," he said, "because handling a dispute between my officers on my first day is _not_ what I needed."

"It never is." Asuma sagely replied, "And speaking of your first day, you need to decide on our training regiment for the day. Personally, I'm excited to see what a former member of the Black Ops has to offer."

"Indeed!" Guy boomed, "I am also greatly looking forward to learning from you as well! Despite my objections to the way the Black Ops operate, they are formidable! Any training regiment designed by a former member is bound to be extremely youthful!"

Unable to help but overhear Guy's booming proclamation, the two female officers ceased their bickering and refocused their attention on Naruto. Kurenai put on a slight smile, "Even I must admit that the prospect of being taught by you is rather exciting, sir. It's really an amazing opportunity."

"It sure is Kurenai!" Anko exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Naruto and pressing her generous assets against him, "I'm sure that a strong guy like him will run me ragged in no time. I'm practically _quivering_ with anticipation!"

"Anko…" Kurenai growled threateningly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, don't get your panties in a bunch." Anko grumbled, detaching herself from Naruto—but not before giving him a flirtatious grin.

Naruto shifted uncomfortably under the expectations of his new colleagues. "There's just one problem, guys." He told them, "I don't know if I _can_ train you."

"What you mean?" Asuma asked him, confused. "Why wouldn't you be able to?"

"The only training I really know how to do is _ANBU_ training. Training that's designed for people who've been packed with cybernetic enhancements and altered to be physically superior to any normal person! I may not look like it, but I'm strong enough to pick Asuma up with one arm and throw you through that post over there from here." Naruto said, gesturing to a wooden training post almost twenty feet away.

The four officers looked over to the post, and then back at the fairly lithe blond in front of them. "That's…um…wow." Kurenai remarked in a faraway voice.

"I think I'm in love." Anko added.

"Not the time Anko." Kurenai chided the younger woman.

"So you see the problem then?" Naruto asked, "My kind of training would very likely kill you—kind of violates the whole 'keep your men alive' part of the job. One of you will have to be responsible for the regiment."

"No can do sir," Asuma replied, "I got orders straight from the Boss saying that you have to be the one to train us. He figured that you would say that, and told me to tell you that if he was able to do it, so can you."

Naruto's eyes widened, "Commander Kakashi trained someone? Who?"

Asuma gave Naruto a strange look, "Of course he trained someone." he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "He trained Captain Neji."

"Is that so…" Naruto replied weakly, _OK, maybe I shouldn't take Neji lightly anymore._ "Well in that case, why don't you all show me what you can do, and we'll start from there."

* * *

(The City of Konoha, Part 3)

The History of the Elemental Empire

Although it is the Hokage who truly runs the city of Konoha, and the rest of the Elemental Empire by extension, it is the Elemental Emperor who is technically in charge. Forty years after the Fourth Great Ninja War, the new daimyo of what was once the Land of Fire abdicated his throne and declared that the former great nation would now forever be known as the Elemental Republic. As an automatic member of the Senate, the Sixth Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, was unanimously elected to be the first leader of the newly formed nation. Hailed as the savior of the world and a living legend who brought peace to the ninja world, Naruto quickly won a series of diplomatic victories and one after another, the other Elemental Nations joined the Elemental Republic until it stretched across the entire continent as one united land. Declaring his beloved hometown of Konoha to be the new capitol of this mighty republic, Naruto ruled for many, many years, ushering in a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

However, as the years passed, the power of the elected senate gradually began to wane, while the power of the senatorial seats held by the five Kage—seats that, unlike the other members of the Senate, were held for life—was on the rise. Finally, five hundred years after the formation of the Republic, the 31st Hokage staged a successful coup d'état and seized power, declaring himself the first Elemental Emperor.

However, hundreds of years of tradition are not an easy thing to discard, and the title "Hokage" remained, but its meaning was changed to mean the commander of the Imperial Armies. As it had with the senate, years passed, and soon, the Imperial line had become a joke, and the Emperor a figurehead. It was the Hokage who ran the show now.

* * *

**AN: Ok guys, this is the biggest chapter yet. A lot of background information is given, and several important new characters are introduced. I hope that you all are enjoying the little segments explaining the world that I am trying to create. I believe that the richer the back-story of a setting is, the more compelling the actual story itself will be…I don't know, maybe I'm crazy. As always, I would appreciate it if you would use that review box and tell me what you think about what I'm doing here. Favorite and follow if you like what you see, because there is more to come. Later!**


	4. A Sobering Realization

Chapter 4: A Sobering Realization

(Fire Headquarters, Training Area 7)

Despite the revelation that one of the most powerful soldiers that the ANBU had ever produced had successfully managed to train somebody without killing them, Naruto still found the prospect of devising a suitable training regiment for ordinary ninja particularly daunting. The fact of the matter was that Naruto had only managed to make it as far as he had because he simply didn't possess the ability to do anything without pouring every ounce of his being into the task.

True, there was no such thing as a lazy ninja within the ANBU: from the time that they are enrolled into the Academy as children until the day that they knelt before the Hokage and swore their allegiance, those who did not possess the constitution or the drive to succeed were ruthlessly and methodically stamped out. Every day spent in the Academy was a struggle to survive. Even in this harsh environment, Naruto was able to distinguish himself from day one as an individual who simply didn't know the meaning of the word quit. He had lost count of the number of times that he had felt his body fail on him, only to ignore its desperate pleas for rest and continued to push himself without regards to the consequences. That was the way that he had lived his life, and he was unsure if his new subordinates could handle that kind of mentality.

_How am I going to do this?_ Naruto wondered once more as his four Sergeants assembled their squads and lined them up in front of him and waited for his orders. _I've never been a leader, much less a teacher. I've always taken orders…I never even imagined that I would be giving them._ Naruto clenched his hands tightly, this was no time for self-doubt. _I never imagined that I would ever leave the ANBU either,_ he thought,_ and yet here I am. I actually have the easy part, now it's just a matter of making sure that _they_ can handle what I'm going to dish out._

"Alright," Naruto barked at the assembled soldiers, "Now that the necessary introductions are out of the way, it's time to get to work!"

Naruto gathered his chakra and made a hand seal. With a loud _poof_, sixteen identical clones of the blond appeared next to him, causing his new platoon to widen their eyes in surprise at the display. "Since I know nothing about your abilities or limits at this time, I am going to use this training session to observe each of you and get a handle on what you can and cannot do. For the next three hours, each of you will do whatever it takes to try and dispel your assigned clone as if your lives and the lives of everyone you care about depended on it—all it will take is one clean blow. Don't worry about getting hurt either, because my clone will only defend. Begin!"

With a collective shout of "Yes Sir!", the underground platoon saluted their new lieutenant and began to attack their assigned clones with everything they had. As the minutes and hours ticked by, the many Narutos effortlessly dodged, blocked, and redirected their opponents' attacks, revealing their abilities and limitations. The original Naruto—who was silently observing the various battles in the background of this chaotic scene—was struck by something odd. Unlike the ANBU corps, which was trained from the ground up in the same uniform style of combat, almost every Fire ninja had a radically different style of combat.

_That's interesting, _Naruto mused, _in the ANBU, only the a few members of the Black Ops ever bother to develop their own styles of combat…most just use the standard military form that we're taught in the Academy since it's effective enough to work against just about anything we could come across. With someone like Kakashi in charge, would he waste time by having every soldier try to master his or her own style instead of just teaching everybody the military style? It seems like a waste of time to me._

While Naruto was pondering the reasons behind Kakashi's seemingly illogical decision, the unmistakable sound of a dispelled clone echoed through the large chamber and jolted Naruto with the memories of his defeated doppelganger. "YOSH!" Guy's boisterous voice boomed, "Defeating your clone was quite a youthful challenge! Next time, I will defeat you even faster, or I will do one thousand fingertip pushups!"

For a moment, everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to stare at the victorious green-suited man in disbelief that he had actually defeated Naruto's clone. Snapping himself out of his daze Naruto glared at the rest of his dumbfounded platoon, "Did I tell you to stop?" he barked, "Get back to what you were doing, now!" _How did this happen?_ Naruto wondered, _There shouldn't be any normal person who could land a solid blow on me on their own…not within three hours at least._

With a collective groan, the exhausted soldiers resumed their assault upon their assigned clones—who were now much more wary of their opponents. Thoroughly shocked with this development, and needing an explanation, Naruto approached Guy, who was sporting an ear-to-ear grin as he sat on the floor, panting for breath. "Lieutenant!" he wheezed, "Forgive me for not standing, your clone's agility was rather impressive, and I used up a considerable amount of my strength!"

"Don't worry about it," Naruto replied, waving his hand at Guy's concern, "I'm very impressed that you were able to catch me at all. I'd like to hear your thoughts on how you did it."

Guy grinned, "Although it is very unyouthful to boast, I am a master of many forms of hand to hand combat and my experience allows me to pick up on the nuances of other styles quickly. By subtly mixing in techniques from more archaic schools of martial arts, I realized through your reactions that your reflexes are attuned to the more modern forms of combat. I knew that my only chance was to catch you off guard with something that you had never seen before."

Naruto's eyes widened as he reviewed his clone's memory of the fight in his head once more. '_Naruto' eyed Guy calmly as the boisterous man wiped the sweat from his thick brow. "Most impressive, Lieutenant!" he boomed, giving the clone a thumbs up, complete with a blinding grin, "It seems that the tales of the ANBU's prowess are not exaggerated!" Guy's expression hardened; he opened his hand and turned it so that his palm was facing up and tucked his other arm behind his back in a strange stance that Naruto had never seen before. "But I was told to fight as if the lives of my loved ones were on the line…with such youthful motivation driving me, I have no doubt that I will defeat you!" Guy declared with a degree of absolute confidence that intrigued the clone._

"_I sincerely doubt it," 'Naruto' replied, "but I do admire your spirit. Show me what you can do!"_

_In a surprising display of speed given the man's level of exhaustion, Guy charged 'Naruto' in a straight on assault that had the clone rolling his eyes in disbelief. Effortlessly slapping aside a lightning fast punch and using his momentum against him, the clone swung around behind Guy and gently pushed him away, disrupting his balance. The Naruto clone shook his head in disappointment, "I expected better than this, Sergeant!" he chided the man, "Your speed is impressive, to be sure, but if none of your head-on assaults worked before, why in the world would you expect that they'd work this time?" _

_Guy did not speak, instead choosing to reply with a vicious flying roundhouse kick that the clone casually swayed back to avoid by a hair. Experience telling him that this particular assault was done, the clone reflexively prepared itself for Guy's next assault, but was shocked when the telegraphed kick turned out to not be a one-shot attack, but a combination. "Leaf Hurricane!" Guy shouted as he delivered a powerful roundhouse blow to 'Naruto's' ribs, sending the blond doppelganger skidding across the room and through a wooden training post, and causing the corporeal copy to burst into smoke._

"That's it!" Naruto exclaimed, "Although it's faster and simpler to teach the standard military style en masse without regard for individual styles, the lack of diversity means that the ANBU are ill-equipped to face styles that they've never seen before! That's why everyone is learning their own fighting style instead of learning one particular method—it's to prepare them to face the ANBU!"

"I wouldn't say that you are ill-equipped for anything." Guy replied, still fighting to gain control of his breath, "It took every bit of youthful fire that I possess to bring your clone down when it wasn't even fighting back, and that kind of trick is only good once. If we truly are being prepared to fight the ANBU, then there is much work to do if you are any indication of their might."

"I am by no means an average member of the ANBU, Guy." Naruto assured him, "That you were able to land a clean blow on me even when I'm holding back, is no small feat. I would be willing to bet that any members of the ANBU Gang Division would find themselves hard pressed to defeat you were they to face you in single combat. Now take a rest, you've earned it."

For the remainder of the three hours that Naruto had given his soldiers to defeat his clones, his head swam with the implications of his realization. Why was Kakashi training an army of men specifically for the purpose of fighting the ANBU? What was his end goal? Why would he put Naruto in charge of training a platoon instead of making use of his training as a highly skilled covert agent? The longer that he thought, and the more questions that he asked himself, Naruto's brain couldn't help but arrive at the same conclusion: Kakashi was planning to overthrow the Hokage.

_Great,_ Naruto brooded with a sense of helpless despair, _all I do is save one little kid and now I'm an officer in an underground army that's preparing to overthrow the most powerful man in the world. Don't I just have all of the luck in the world?_

In the midst of this pity party, Naruto glanced at the flashing clock on the wall. _It's about time to stop... _Naruto realized, _this is gonna suck. _With a resigned sigh, Naruto formed a handseal and grit his teeth in anticipation before releasing the rest of his remaining clones. _Ow…_ he thought, falling to one knee with a grimace as nearly forty-five hours of memories slammed into his brain at once, _that feedback is such a bitch!_ Ignoring the murmurs of confusion and concern over his sudden weakness, Naruto ordered his exhausted troops to line up in front of him and took a moment to regain his senses before pulling himself to his feet and looking the assembled men and women over with bloodshot eyes.

"Good work everyone," he praised the haggard troops, "I don't think it would be too much to say that this was an excellent first session! I feel like I've gotten a decent handle on your respective styles and with a little time, I will see what I can do to polish them up further." Naruto smiled weakly—he was really feeling the effects of the mass clone jutsu more than usual thanks to his less than adequate meal. "I am happy to say that none of you succumbed to frustration and abandoned your attempts to dispel my clones. It comes as a huge relief to know that I've been placed in charge of a unit that understands the value of never giving up."

Naruto paused for a moment to allow the gathered troops to swell with pride at his praise before continuing, "As you get to know me better, you will come to understand that I am a fairly laid back and forgiving person." He said, "I understand very well that everybody makes mistakes…nobody is perfect, least of all myself. I am still coming to terms with the fact that I allowed myself to be misled about what the ANBU stands for…because of this, I have done terrible things in the service of the Hokage…at the time, I had convinced myself that it was all for the greater good. Now that I know it isn't true, I don't know if I will ever be able to forgive myself." Following this confession, Naruto fell silent while his troops silently stared at him in anticipation of what would come out of their young commander's mouth next.

Suddenly, Naruto hardened his expression and addressed his soldiers with a voice as hard as steel, "I can forgive many things," he reiterated, "But if there is anything for which I have neither understanding nor patience, it is a quitter." Naruto spat the word as if it were the vilest of epithets. "What we did today was not just an assessment of your abilities as a fighter, but a test of your will. A true soldier is not defined by their skills, the weapons that they carry, or the uniform that they wear—a soldier is defined by their uncompromising devotion to the principles of their cause. Even in the face of eminent death, a soldier will march forward to defend that cause with their dying breath. Understand that if any of you had given up before I gave the order to stop, you would have been out the door before you had any idea what had happened."

"But," Naruto added, smiling once again, "luckily, that wasn't the case. It may be a little bit early, but as a reward for exceeding my expectations, training will end here for the day. You are all dismissed!" At this news, many of the troops broke out into cheers and began making excited conversation, "I suggest that you use this free time to relax," Naruto shouted over the hubbub, "because starting tomorrow, you are all going to hate me more than you have ever hated anyone in your life!" _I wonder if they heard me?_ Naruto wondered, before shrugging indifferently, _oh well, it's not like it really matters. _

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Naruto turned towards the exit and made a beeline for it without bothering to stop and speak to anyone. "Hey, wait up!" A female voice called out to him.

_I am so not in the mood for this right now_. Naruto thought as he pinched his nose in the hopes of fighting off the blinding headache that extended use of his cloning technique always brought. Ignoring the woman pursuing him, Naruto continued his purposeful stride towards the door. _All that I am going to do right now is go to the mess hall, see if I can't persuade that Ayame girl to give me more food, and then collapse on my bed for a few hours. _

"Hey there, sexy!" Anko's voice rang in his ear as the sweaty, winded kunoichi caught up to him. "Surely a gentlemen like you wouldn't give a pretty girl such an exhausting workout and leave without saying goodbye would you?" She gave Naruto a flirty grin and stretched out her back in a motion that did very interesting things to her curves as she walked alongside him.

"Goodbye." Naruto replied flatly as he slightly sped up his pace in the direction of the mess hall.

Anko let out a huff and pouted, "Oh, c'mon Lieutenant!" she said, "Don't be like that! It's your first day here and the only person that you've talked to about anything but business is Akimichi! Lighten up! Have some fun!"

Naruto let out a snort and glanced at the young woman with an amused expression. "No offense Sergeant Mitarashi, but I don't think that you're talking about the kind of fun that's acceptable to have with your Lieutenant."

Anko gave Naruto a saucy grin, "Guilty as charged," she admitted, "but this ain't the ANBU, now is it? We're a bit more relaxed in the way we do things around here."

"Sergeant Yuhi doesn't seem to think so."

Anko blew a raspberry at the mention of the stern woman, "Oh, she's just an old stick in the mud who's in terrible need of a decent lay!" she replied, dismissing Naruto's point with a wave of her hand and making the him snicker at her vulgar phrasing, "in case you haven't noticed, not very many people here are super hung up on formality."

"I guess that you have a point there," Naruto admitted, "for somebody as high up in the chain of command as I am, I've received surprisingly little groveling."

Anko let out a laugh and playfully punched Naruto's arm, "You make it sound like you're disappointed, Mr. High and Mighty Lieutenant." She joked.

"Maybe a little." Naruto confessed with a chuckle, "But mostly I'm relieved. I'm pretty sure that the sight of people falling to their knees to kiss my ass would get old very quickly."

"Oh, I don't know about that…" Anko replied with a sly expression, "I'd be willing to bet that you wouldn't get tired of certain people being on their knees."

Naruto couldn't help but let out a laugh, this woman was just too much. "You are incorrigible," he scolded her without any real heat, "don't you ever stop?"

"Not a chance," Anko answered with a cheeky grin, "besides," she added, "when you know that every day might be your last, you have to get your laughs wherever you can find them, you know?"

"That's an awfully pessimistic outlook for someone as cheerful as you are." Naruto observed.

Anko shrugged, "It's a rough world we live in," she bluntly replied, "My parents were killed in front of me by a strung out junkie looking for cash when I was ten—in fact, if you ask around you'll find that a lot of the people down here have similar stories. I have no illusions that my life could end at any time because of something equally as stupid and senseless."

"I'm sorry." Naruto said quietly, "My Mom passed away when I was born, and my Dad died when I was eleven." Naruto looked over at Anko, unsure of why he had just shared such personal information with a woman that he had just met a few hours ago, but felt compelled to continue. "Do you wanna know something funny?" He asked, "I've never told anyone this, but I can barely remember what my Dad looks like… I think his hair was the same color hair as mine." Naruto let out a humorless laugh, "But for some reason I can remember this one bedtime story he would tell me almost perfectly. I could probably repeat it word for word."

"What was the story?" Anko asked him without any the usual flirtatious tone in her voice.

"It was the story of Uzumaki Naruto, the legendary hero." Naruto answered, "My parents named me after him hoping that I would turn out just like him…that's the reason I decided to join the ANBU." Naruto looked down at the floor, "I guess that they would be disappointed in how that turned out, huh?"

For the next few minutes, Naruto and Anko walked side by side in an awkward silence after sharing such personal information before Anko put on a cheerful grin and grabbed Naruto by the arm. "Enough of this depressing crap!" she declared, "I'm gonna take you on the grand tour of the compound! I'll show you all of my favorite spots!"

"Only if one of your favorite spots involves food," Naruto replied, "Because if I don't get something to eat soon, I may literally die of hunger."

"That depends," Anko replied, "am I on the menu?"

"Don't push it." Naruto shot back at her with a faint smile, "Seriously though, I am actually starving right now."

Anko looked at Naruto strangely, "But didn't you eat like seven bowls of ramen just a few hours ago?" she asked, "How could you possibly be hungry after that?"

"Super efficient metabolism," he said, "Side effect of being an ANBU…now about that food?"

"Alright, alright," Anko groaned, "keep your pants on. Or don't, whatever. I'll get you some food, and _then_ I give you the grand tour, deal?"

"Sounds good to me," Naruto said, ignoring the innuendo, which had become white noise to him by this point, "I still don't know my way around this place worth a damn. A tour would be great."

"Alright!" Anko exclaimed cheerfully with a victorious fist pump, "Let's get this show on the road!"

After hurrying to the mess hall and pleading with Ayame for more food, Anko watched in disgusted fascination as the toned, but fairly slender Naruto spent the next forty-five minutes consume more food than she had ever seen anyone eat in a day—let alone one sitting—faster than the overwhelmed brunette could prepare it and place it in front of him.

"Wow," Anko remarked, feeling slightly nauseous, "in my line of work, I've seen some pretty weird things, but I have never seen anything like this…it's uncanny."

"Umm…Sir?" Ayame said, interrupting Naruto from polishing off his sixteenth plate of food.

Naruto swallowed, "Yes Ayame?" he replied, "Is there a problem?"

"It's just that we need to start preparations for lunch pretty soon, and…" Ayame trailed off with a helpless expression on her pretty face.

Naruto frowned for a moment, then shrugged and finished the rest of the food on his plate. "Oh well," he sighed, "I guess it can't be helped then…thanks for the food anyways, Ayame, I owe you one." Naruto neatly stacked all of his many dishes and stowed them away before turning to Anko, "Well, it wasn't quite as much as I wanted, but now I don't feel like I'm going to die of hunger anymore. Shall we get on with the tour then?"

"…Sure." Anko said, "Are you really telling me that you could have eaten more than that? You just ate enough food for more than ten people!"

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Yeah," he chuckled, "it's not normally that extreme though, the multi-clone technique really takes a lot out of me."

"No kidding." Anko replied with a deadpan voice.

"Anyways," Naruto said, hoping to change the subject from his inhuman eating habits, "where are we going first?"

"So glad you asked!" Anko replied with a mischievous grin, "Our first stop on the grand tour is my favorite place to relax after a hard day of training! We're headed to the onsen!"

"The onsen?" Naruto repeated in disbelief, "But Konoha doesn't have any hot springs."

"Maybe not on the surface," Anko replied, "but while they were carving this place out, they discovered a massive underground river of hot water, so they slapped some turbines to it, added plumbing and converted it into an onsen for us to relax in. That river is where all of our electricity and drinking water from, so it's pretty much our lifeline down here."

"Huh," Naruto said, "I did wonder how this place was able to have so many utilities without being tapped into the city's energy and water grid, but I suppose that a powerful enough underground river would be able to make this entire base self-sustaining."

"That's pretty much the gist of it!" Anko agreed before tugging on Naruto's arm once more, "Now let's move it! I certainly don't mind getting a little dirty, but I don't usually enjoy being sweaty and disgusting any longer than strictly necessary!"

"OK, OK…" Naruto agreed with a chuckle as he followed the cheerful Kunoichi's lead. "The onsen it is then, lead away."

* * *

(The City of Konoha, Part 4)

The Tailed Beasts

One of the greater mysteries that has prevailed over the course of the last thousand years is the inexplicable disappearance of the legendary tailed beasts which once roamed the world. It is impossible to believe that nine towering beings composed of chakra so powerful that it has taken a physical form could simply vanish with no explanation whatsoever.

After the events of the 4th Great Ninja War, where their combined energy was powerful was enough to very nearly cause the end of the world as they knew it. Only through the combined efforts of all five great ninja villages and the two remaining bearers of tailed beasts was this apocalypse stopped. Most historians believe that this close call, combined with the empathy that Uzumaki Naruto, the final bearer of the Nine Tailed Fox, felt for all of the tailed beasts, resulted in the decision to send the legendary fragments of the Juubi far away from the Elemental continent, to the other side of the world, where their power could never be used as a weapon of war ever again. However, others believe that the tailed beasts still exist on the continent to this day—as the slaves of the Imperial regime, who would use their vast power for both good and ill alike.

* * *

**AN: Chapter 4 complete! The plot is starting to thicken, and Naruto is beginning to get an idea of what Kakashi is planning…or is he? I'm really having fun exploring the character of Anko as someone who has had a rough life but manages to keep a cheerful attitude through it all. While my Naruto may seem like he is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, he's more of a brilliant actor than anything else—the things he has done in ANBU have damaged him greatly. If the ending seems a little abrupt, it's because I had more written out, but I have been advised that my chapters should ideally be between 3K and 4K for the sake of the readers and had to break it into two, so expect an update soon! As always, I would appreciate it if you would use that review section, as well as follow and favorite my story. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!**


	5. Hot Springs, Hot Tempers

Chapter 5: Hot Springs, Hot Tempers

"Finally!" Anko groaned as the two approached a doorway with a wave of heat pouring out of it. "I swear, this place seems to get bigger every time that I turn around!"

"Now that you mention it," Naruto remarked, "why _is _this place so damn big? This organization can't have more than a few hundred members, but this place is big enough to house thousands of people."

"Don't ask me," Anko replied with a shrug, and brushed the stone doorway with her fingers as they walked into the sweltering chamber, "I've just learned to accept the Boss's decisions without questioning them by now. They might not make sense sometimes, but he always has a plan."

"Fair enough." Naruto conceded as his female guide led him into a typical changing room with a wall of cubbies for placing one's clothes. "Uh…where's the other changing room?" He asked, glancing around for any kind of sign or doorway.

Anko let out a laugh before pulling her top off without a care and baring everything for Naruto to see, "What's the matter?" she asked with a crooked grin as she simply tossed her removed clothing into one of the cubbies, "Does the thought of undressing in front of little old me make you nervous?"

"Uh…I wouldn't say nervous, exactly." Naruto replied, attempting to not openly stare at the young woman's bountiful assets.

Anko stretched once more with the expression of the cat that just ate the canary and removed her pants as well. "That's good," she purred, "I certainly wouldn't want to do anything that made you uncomfortable."

Naruto snorted. "How thoughtful of you." He replied dryly before beginning to undress as well, "I'm truly lucky to have a subordinate who's so considerate of my feelings."

"That's me alright," Anko said as she picked up a towel from a basket and wrapping it around her, "considerate to a fault."

Naruto shook his head with a slight smile and neatly placed his new clothing into the cubby next to Anko's and wrapped a towel of his own around his waist. "I suppose that's one way to describe you," he said, "though it's not really the first thing that comes to mind."

"Oh really?" Anko said with a dangerous smile as the two walked out of the changing area and into the steamy onsen, "And what _is _the first thing that comes that comes to mind?"

"Oh please," Naruto replied with a matching smirk, "I may have more experience with combat than women, but I know a trap when I see one."

"It's only a trap when the answer is something you don't want us to hear." Anko retorted with a pout on her face.

"SERGEANT!" a shrill voice exclaimed from within the vision obscuring steam, "Why is there a guy with you in the women's side of the onsen!"

"Women's side?" Naruto repeated dully, glaring at Anko. "What do you mean, the women's side?"

Stepping out of the obscuring steam wearing a towel, a young woman with pink hair and a slender build placed her hands on her hips and glared daggers at Naruto with her emerald green eyes. "As in the side of the onsen that only WOMEN are allowed in!" she growled, "Who exactly do you think you are, coming in here? I ought to beat you within an inch of your li…", the young woman trailed off and her eyes widened in recognition and fear when she realized exactly whom she had just threatened with physical violence. "Lieutenant Naruto?" she gasped in surprise, paling slightly at the sight of the hapless man, "I mean, um, you really shouldn't be in here…" she amended weakly, "it's uh, not proper…and…um."

Naruto held up a hand, "You're right," he agreed, rescuing the girl from a total panic attack, "I shouldn't be in here." Naruto glared at Anko once more, who scratched the back of her head and let out a sheepish laugh, "I didn't know that this was the women's side, I'm sorry for all of the trouble, miss…"

"S-Sakura." the pink-haired girl replied, "Private Haruno Sakura. I'm a member of squad three in your platoon."

"Of course," Naruto replied, recalling the images of fighting the girl earlier that morning, "you kept trying to lure me into traps that you had set up on the fly. It was some impressive stuff for not having any time to plan beforehand…you have a decent head on your shoulders."

"Really?" Sakura responded with shining eyes, "Thank you! I've always been good at doing quick calculations and things like that…stuff like physics and numbers just make sense to me, I guess." Shyly, the slim kunoichi pulled her towel around torso tighter, "I've never been that great at the physical aspects of the job though…mediocre at best, really. That's why Sergeant Kurenai is teaching me some tricks with illusions, but I knew that they weren't nearly ready to try on you."

"Good policy," Naruto told her seriously, "never put your stock into an unfinished technique if you have any other option available—gambles are more likely to get you killed than work."

"Don't be so down on yourself!" Anko told Sakura as she draped herself over the girl from behind, "Kurenai's latest protégé should show a little more confidence in her abilities!" With a naughty grin, Anko yanked the concealing towel off of the girl exposing her to Naruto completely. "You should also show off that cute little body of yours too!" Anko teased, squeezing the mortified girl in a powerful embrace, "You're far too adorable to hide it behind a towel like that!" Sakura gasped and blushed furiously as she hugged her body in attempt to hide herself from Naruto's view.

_Huh_, Naruto thought, _what do you know...pink _is_ her natural hair color._

"Sergeant!" Sakura exclaimed, breaking free from Anko's grasp reclaiming her towel with a huff and still very red from her unexpected exhibition, "How could you do that to me! You know that kind of behavior is highly unbecoming of a person of your rank and…"

"Blah blah blah," Anko interrupted, making mouthing gestures with her hand, "geez, Pinky, you really let that old fuddy duddy get to you huh?"

Sakura's eyes narrowed in anger at the woman in front of her, "Sergeant Kurenai is a wonderful, mature role model and I won't have you speaking ill of her and WHY IS HE STILL HERE!" Sakura's face was now completely flushed with anger as she gestured angrily at Naruto who stood there watching the scene impassively.

Anko draped her arms around Naruto's neck and placed her head on his shoulder. "Well you know me and cute things: whenever I see them I just have to have them!" Anko gave the increasingly nonplussed Naruto a pinch on the cheek and put on her best rendition of puppy dog eyes, "Isn't he just the most adorable thing you've ever seen? I simply couldn't _bear_ to go a minute without him."

Sakura looked as if she were going to burst into an apoplectic fit as she stared at pouting face of her female superior and threw up her hands in frustration. "FINE!" She shouted helplessly before storming out of the steam-filled room, "Do whatever you want! I'm leaving!"

"Don't let the door hit your sweet ass on the way out, Pinky!" Anko called out, causing a very loud growl of annoyance to come out of the locker room. After a moment of deafening silence, Anko burst out into laughter. "Oh, man!" she said, wiping a mirthful tear from her eye, "She's getting to be even more fun than Kurenai!"

"Hehe," Naruto snickered and gave Anko an exasperated shake of his head, "do you mess with _everyone_ like this?"

"Not _everyone_," Anko replied, "just most of them…some people just aren't any fun."

_Like Neji, I bet._ Naruto thought with a shake of his head. "Sakura did ask a good question though, why _did_ you bring me to the women's side of the onsen?"

Anko looked away and made her way over to the steaming pool of water. After removing her towel and tossing it on the ground behind her she entered the bath and let out a blissful sigh. "Are you just gonna stand there all day?" She called over to Naruto, "The water feels great! C'mon in already!"

Naruto let out a sigh, but did as his eccentric new friend bid, removing his towel and joining her in the steaming hot pool of water. He closed his eyes in bliss as he felt the heat begin to sink into his body and release more tension than he had even known he was carrying around. "You didn't answer my question, you know." He said, his eyes still closed and his head leaned back into the lip of the pool.

"You looked like you needed to relax." Anko replied, "Since the moment you showed up at the training center, you looked like you just trying to hold yourself together, putting on a smiling face to hide how alone you feel." Anko glanced at Naruto, who had opened his eyes and was staring at her curiously. "I may not look it," she said, "but I'm pretty perceptive about things like this. I bet that leaving the ANBU was tough on you…I bet it's still tough on you. You can talk to me about that, if you want, I'm a good listener."

Naruto tensed almost imperceptibly. "What are you talking about?" He asked her, sitting up once more, "I told you that joining ANBU was the worst mistake that I ever made in my life. Deciding to leave those bastards was the smartest thing I've done in eleven years."

Anko placed a hand on his shoulder and shot him a sympathetic look. "That whole speech about mistakes and forgiveness and quitters…you don't just hate yourself for being in ANBU do you? You hate yourself for quitting too—for leaving the only people who understand what you've been through."

He clenched his fists, voice rising bit by bit with every word, "The Hokage, the ANBU, they were nothing but heartless manipulative bastards that hooked me in with the promise that I would be making the world a better place! They made me swear an oath to uphold the law, when the only law that they followed was to do whatever they wanted with their power! They used me!" With an angry roar, Naruto lashed out with a fist that broke one of the decorative rocks surrounding the heated pool into pieces. He glared at Anko, "You don't know me," he growled, "You're nothing but a sad little orphan girl crying out for attention! Where do you get off telling me how I feel, when you have no idea of the things I have done for them!"

"Is that so?" Anko replied with an angry expression of her own, "Because some crying little orphan girl who's spent every day since the moment her parents were murdered in front of her doing whatever it takes to survive would know nothing about how shitty this world can be!"

Standing up to match her angry gaze with Naruto's, Anko leaned in until she was only a few inches away from his face. She poked him in the chest, "I brought you here so that I could talk to you about managing your time in ANBU in a comfortable environment without anybody intruding on us! I'm worried about you! Nobody can just quit something like the ANBU and just move on with their life like nothing happened!" Anko threw her hands up in the air, "You've been a soldier since you were twelve! Experiences like that leave scars—deep ones! I heard that you nearly frightened poor Hinata to death last night! If we don't address your issues, sooner or later, somebody is going to be hurt or killed by you!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Of course…" he hissed, "Kakashi. Is he the one who put you up to this little _therapy session_?"

"Yes." Anko admitted, "One of my specialties—and reasons for my rank—is because there is nobody in this base who is better at counseling soldiers through their traumatic experiences."

Naruto grabbed his towel and stepped out of the bath, "You can tell your boss that he can take his therapy and shove it up his ass! I can control myself just fine! I'm out of here."

"Can you really?" Anko asked, pointing at the pulverized remains of the decorative rock, "Because destroying inanimate objects only moments after an uncomfortable subject is brought up doesn't look like a shining example of self control to me!"

Naruto flinched at the physical evidence of his lost temper and turned around, facing away from Anko. "So I guess that everything you said to me to get me here has been nothing but an act then?" he let out a bitter laugh, "I have to congratulate you…I thought that nobody would be able to play me for a sucker like that after my time in the ANBU, but it looks like you proved me wrong." Anko stepped out of the bath and grabbed Naruto by the arm, turning him to face her. Naruto's gaze hardened, "I suggest you take your hands off me, Sergeant," he warned her with an icy tone, "before you lose them." Ignoring his threat, Anko wrapped her arms around Naruto and pulled him in for a kiss.

Naruto jerked backwards in surprise, "W-what are you doing?" he stammered, thrown off by the unexpected show of affection.

"It's true that I was ordered by the Boss to act as your counselor," Anko told the flabbergasted man in her arms with her trademark crooked grin, "but what can I say? When I see something cute, I just _have_ to have it." Cutting off any further words from the stunned Naruto, she pulled him tightly against her naked form once more for another kiss, which he instinctively returned. Anko stared into his blue eyes for a moment before letting out an embarrassed cough, "Um…can we _please_ get back in the water now?" she asked with a slight blush on her face, "I'm feeling a little…exposed right now."

Naruto let out an incredulous laugh, having pulled a complete 180 in mood after being kissed by a beautiful naked girl. "I can't believe it!" he chuckled, following Anko back into the heated pool of water, "_You_ of all people, getting all bashful?"

Anko stuck out her tongue at Naruto, "I _am_ still a girl, you know!" she retorted, her cheeks still slightly flushed, "Of course I'm going to get embarrassed after kissing a boy I just met today! _Especially_ when I'm naked!"

"Didn't seem to bother you before." Naruto pointed out.

"Shut it, Uzumaki!" Anko growled playfully, "Or you won't be getting any more of that where it came from!"

"Oh, well I certainly don't want that." Naruto snickered.

"Hmph," Anko huffed, sliding over to Naruto and leaning into his chest, "keep it up, Blondie."

Naruto snorted, but didn't say anything more and put his arm around Anko and gave her a gentle squeeze. The two sat there for a while, just soaking peacefully in the onsen as they passed the minutes by in silence. From time to time during this silent interlude, Naruto would sneak speculative glances at Anko, as if he were asking the same question in his head over and over.

"What is it?" Anko asked, feeling a little nervous under the weight of the former ANBU's scrutiny.

"Nothing much," Naruto replied, "I was just wondering _why_? I'm guessing that Kakashi won't be pleased that you decided to…uh, get so close to the person you were supposed to be counseling, and you just met me."

"Like I told you before," Anko said as she snuggled herself deeper into his chest, "I know that my end can come at any moment, especially in this line of work." She looked up into Naruto's eyes, "Something about you intrigues me," she told him, "I don't know what it is, but you just have a presence about you…an aura or something, that draws me in. The other sergeants told me that they could feel it too."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, curious for more details.

"It's hard to explain," Anko replied with a shake of her head, "but being around you feels like sort of like being with the Boss…like you're destined for greater things than most men. That we should follow you just to see what happens. When I talked with Konohamaru about his experience with the ANBU and you, he also said that you reminded him of the Boss—he told me that he instinctively felt as if he should trust you."

"That's funny," Naruto murmured, "nobody ever got that kind of vibe from me while I was in ANBU…" he scratched his head, "as a matter of fact, most people thought I was pretty unremarkable until I started cracking their skulls."

"Why do you think that is?" Anko asked him.

"Couldn't say," Naruto replied, "but when I was in the Black Ops, I always had this nagging feeling like I should be doing something else…that's partially why I transferred to the Gang Unit, but that obviously didn't work out."

"Maybe you've found your destiny." Anko said with a smirk.

"I don't believe in destiny," Naruto told her, "I believe that your life is something that you shape with your own two hands."

"And yet you joined ANBU because you wanted to be a hero like the one your parents named you after—and here you are, helping a ragtag group of underground shinobi protect their home from tyranny."

"Don't make it sound so grand," Naruto grunted, "I came here because I have nowhere else to go, and if your underground army didn't need my skill so badly, you would put me down at the front door. I know that your charming Captain Neji would have loved to do that."

"The Captain certainly isn't fond of the ANBU, or you by extension, but if I read the report correctly, _he_ is the one who made the decision to let you in and bring you to the Boss."

Naruto scoffed, "He probably just didn't want to fight me where I stood a chance of escaping with the hideout's location."

Anko shrugged, "That may have had something to do with it, but the fact of the matter is that you are now one of our highest ranking officers. This is your home now, whether he likes it or not."

"I suppose…" Naruto replied, "but that doesn't mean that I won't be keeping a close eye on him." Anko burst into laughter at Naruto's statement. "What's so funny about that?" he asked.

"He said the exact same thing about you at the meeting last night! Word for word!"

Naruto glowered, "First I find out that there was a base wide briefing about me this morning, and now I learn that there was some kind of…officer's meeting or something last night!" He pinched his nose and growled. "Why does nobody bother telling me about these things!"

Anko shrugged, "To be fair," she noted, "A former ANBU Black Ops member showing up on our doorstep with one of our most trusted messengers offering his services to us is a pretty big deal…did you _honestly _think that there wouldn't be meetings and briefings about you?"

"Of course I didn't," Naruto shot back, "but I would have liked to be present for them at least! Why wasn't I informed?"

Anko coughed awkwardly, "Some of us, uh, brought that point up, but the Boss said that it would be funnier this way."

Naruto sighed, "Of course he did." he grumbled sourly while Anko fought to contain her snickers at the sight of his pouting face.

"Ah buck up, Blondie!" Anko cooed as she pinched his cheek, "You'll be coming to the officer's meeting tonight! Does that make you feel any better?"

"No." Naruto petulantly answered, making the young woman giggle at his attitude.

"You know," Anko chortled, "It's really difficult to remember that you are an unbelievably deadly ninja when you act like a spoiled six-year-old."

Whatever Naruto was going to retort was cut off by the sound of shouts from outside the deserted onsen. Anko slapped her forehead, "Stupid!" she said to herself, "How long have we been in here?" she asked Naruto.

Naruto thought for a second, "I couldn't say exactly, but an hour and a half, maybe?"

Anko smiled sheepishly, "We should get out," she told him regretfully, "The normal after training crowd is here, and they probably aren't too happy about my uh, privacy measures."

"Privacy measures?" Naruto repeated, "Oh! So when you said that you wanted a place that we wouldn't be disturbed, that means that you…"

"Set up a barrier at the entrance to the female side of the Onsen, yes."

Naruto gave her an impressed look, "When did you manage to set that up?"

"Remember when I touched the doorway on the way in?" She said.

"I wasn't really paying attention, but sure, I guess."

"I set it up then, if I want it to, it'll let people out, but it won't let them in."

"So that was how Sakura managed to leave?"

"Yep!"

"Not bad," Naruto said appreciatively, "I don't know much about it, but I've heard that it's some pretty esoteric stuff. I don't know if some of the ANBU barrier specialists could even set up one that quickly."

"It's another one of my many talents," Anko bragged as the two dried off and made their way to the locker room, "my squad specializes in defensive abilities and delaying tactics."

"And I suppose it comes in handy against unruly soldiers who don't want counseling, huh?"

Anko grinned, "Sure does! Once I put that baby up, ain't nobody getting out or in without my say-so!"

The two of them finished getting dressed and walked up to the doorway, which was filled by the glow of a translucent purple light. With a simple handseal, Anko released the barrier and it flickered away, allowing full view of a crowd of irate women.

"Sergeant Anko!" one of the women said, "You really have gone too far this time! Using your ability with barriers to have a dalliance in our shared baths is beyond inappropriate! Don't think that Captain Neji won't hear about this!"

"Yeah!" Another one of the women chimed in, "I've had enough of her flirting with every guy that crosses her path, too! People like her are why my man left me!"

_Geez,_ Naruto thought, _projecting your issues much?_

Anko rolled her eyes, "Yeah whatever," she said to the mob, "blow it out your other end, I don't have to explain myself to you! C'mon, Naruto, let's get out of here!"

"And YOU!" the ringleader of the women shouted, poking Naruto in the chest, "I know that she doesn't have any shame, but you have no excuse for coming into the women's bath, you pervert!"

Naruto looked helplessly at Anko, _Give me a hand here, Anko,_ he thought desperately, _I already have enough rep issues being an ex-ANBU, and I don't need pervert added to it as well._

Anko sighed and grabbed Naruto's hand, leading him through the crowd, "I told him that it was a mixed bathing onsen, you uptight idiots," she said, "if you want to blame anyone, blame me!"

With that charming statement, the two of them pulled away from the angrily muttering crowd and made haste down the hallway until they could no longer hear the complaining voices. "Why didn't you tell them why you really brought me there," Naruto asked her, "it probably would have saved you from the grief you're going to get over this."

"What's the fun in that?" Anko replied, "Besides, even if we didn't get to much counseling done in there, my private counseling sessions are just that—private. The details of why we were in there is on a need to know basis, and they don't need to know."

"So this whole flirty persona that you put on…"

"Yeah, it's an act. If people want to make their own assumptions as to why I sometimes disappear with other people for periods of time, than they are free to do so."

Naruto chuckled, "So how often are your patients disappointed when you sit them down on your couch to discuss their feelings instead of having sex."

Anko grinned, "More than you would even believe."

"I don't find it that hard to believe." Naruto replied.

"My patients aren't only guys you know."

"Oh." Naruto answered, then his eyes widened, "OH!" He was suddenly _very_ interested in what she had to say. "_Really_?"

Anko looked incredibly smug as she stretched out and gave Naruto a grin, "What can I say? I've got the magic."

"Huh," Naruto mused as various possibilities ran through his head, "I would say so."

**AN: Well here we are again, some more interaction between Naruto and Anko, some of the rage that's bubbling beneath the surface of our protagonist came up for air, and inappropriate romance FTW. Right now the story is mostly a lot of exposition, but don't worry, it'll get to the action soon enough! Don't forget to hit that favorite and follow button, and leave a review with any comments, concerns or ideas that you might have.**


	6. Officer's Meeting

Chapter 6: Officer's Meeting

In the nearly pitch dark of his bare room, Naruto lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling in silence. Thoughts buzzing with the events of his first day, he contemplated what else the world would throw at him before he drifted off to sleep later that evening. _Specifically,_ he thought with a frown, _what can I expect to go down at my first officer's meeting. I know that Anko will be there, since she's Kakashi's main source of info concerning the psychological condition of the soldiers, but who else am I going to have to deal with?_ Naruto grimaced, _Definitely Neji—and I'm guessing that he's probably heard about me nearly jumping his cousin if Anko knows about it…that'll be fun. Asuma will almost certainly be there, since he _is _my second-in-command and everything. _

Naruto sighed, everything was so much simpler when he just followed orders instead of giving them. _Not to mention the fact that everyone seems to think I'm some kind of 'destined hero' or something…I've always been the guy that nobody noticed until it was too late, and now I'm some kind of weird celebrity around here. _Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by a gentle knock at the door. "Who is it?" Naruto called out, restraining himself from assuming the position at the door's blind spot this time. However, he did still palm a blade. Just in case.

"Um, i-it's me…Hinata." A familiar feminine voice called out, "I was sent to tell you that the officer's meeting is going to be starting in twenty minutes…and to uh, escort you there."

Naruto's eyes widened and he glanced at the illuminated numbers of the clock on his dresser. _Holy shit!_ He thought, putting away his readied weapon, _I really lost track of the time there._ "Uh, thanks for the heads up!" he shouted, "Just give me a moment to get ready and I'll be right out!" Reaching over to the nearby lamp and flicking it on, he flinched at the sudden bright light and waited a few seconds for his eyes to adjust before grabbing some clean versions of his new orange ensemble to throw them on. When he was about halfway through dressing himself, however, Naruto stopped.

_Wait a minute,_ he realized, _the moment that I show up to that meeting, I'm going to fall under the scrutiny of everyone who doesn't like the position that I've been given here. Even if people like Anko or Asuma are on my side—which I still have my doubts about—I might as well assume that the others have a similar attitude as Neji…and that means that they will be looking for any sign of weakness or reason to distrust me, no matter how small._ Glancing over at the neatly stacked suit of black armor in the corner of his room, Naruto was struck by a sudden inspiration. As quickly and efficiently as possible, he pulled out a knife, suture from his field medical kit, ripped the sheets off of his bed, grabbed one of his new orange tunics, and got to work. Naruto let out a laugh; _I can't wait to see the look on their faces._

Ten minutes later, Hinata let out a slight gasp when Naruto stepped out of his room wearing his ANBU armor underneath a buttonless trench coat styled officer's jacket with a single cloth bar indicating his rank as lieutenant, and a large patch on his right arm which prominently featured the dreaded symbol of the ANBU Black Ops division—but wreathed in flames. Underneath the flaming ANBU symbol were the words, 'Heroes Without Compromise'.

"Like it?" Naruto asked the flabbergasted young woman with a grin on his face, "I figured that since it's my first officer's meeting and all, I should try and make an impression." He spun around, causing the bottom of the hastily constructed garment to flow with his movement. "C'mon," he prompted, "tell me what you think. Be brutally honest!"

Hinata blinked, "I-it's very, uh, striking…" she replied, "but did you, um, make that out of a bed sheet?"

Naruto fingered the cloth of his new coat and laughed sheepishly. "Yeah…" he admitted, "that and some of the clothes you gave me. It was very much a spur of the moment sort of deal, as in I made it in the last ten minutes…is it that obvious?"

Hinata blushed and gave Naruto a tentative nod. "Um, a little…" she told him with her pale eyes glued to the floor, "the stitching is…um, very rough…the measurements are off so it doesn't fit you very well…the cutting is sloppy and looks like it was hacked at with a knife…your choice of thread is…um, interesting, and the fabric you used is completely wrong for this kind of garment."

With each word that came out of the shy girl's mouth, Naruto looked more and more downcast until it appeared as if the proverbial storm cloud were floating above his head. When she saw the effect that her words had on the young man she quickly grabbed his hand and patted it with a blush on her face. "Um, for a beginner, it's really quite good though! Whatever statement you are trying to make with it is sure to get through!" she reassured him. Dropping his hand, she looked at him shyly, "Um…if you'd like, I could, um, fix it up for you later…" she offered, face crimson, "of course, I would have to borrow you for a little while to take your, um, m-measurements."

Naruto's morose face lit up with a smile, "Thanks Hinata!" he exclaimed gratefully, "That would be a huge help!" His grateful smile turned sly and he grabbed the blushing young woman by the hands, making her squeak softly, "Not only beautiful, but generous too!" he praised loudly, "I sure do envy the lucky guy who ever ends up with you, Hinata!"

"W-well, I…I uh…ummm." Bright red and reduced to a stammering wreck, Hinata yanked her hands from Naruto's grip, turned away from him and began walking away robotically. "W-w-we should get going…" she said, "I-it would be bad if you were late to the meeting."

Naruto stifled his urge to snicker at the poor girl's embarrassment; _this is way too much fun,_ he thought with a slightly sadistic grin on his face, _it's so easy to rile her up that I'm almost embarrassed for her…maybe I should stop picking on her like this._ At that moment, Naruto noticed Hinata trying to discreetly peek at him through her dark bangs, and with a lopsided grin and a wink, he caused the girl to squeak in embarrassment and turn away as if she had been burned. _Nah,_ he thought, _there's no way that that's going to happen._

Despite his decision to mercilessly tease Hinata by exploiting her shyness, Naruto spent the rest of the journey to the officer's meeting in silence. He simply had too much to think about at the moment to focus on fun, and before he knew it, the two of them reached the door that marked the entrance to the meeting. Hinata coughed awkwardly, "W-well," she said, "Um…here we are." She turned red, and wished him luck as quickly as she could before scurrying off—but prior she turned the corner, Hinata turned around to give the taciturn Naruto one last glimpse before disappearing from his sight completely.

Naruto stared at the door for nearly a minute before letting out a sigh. "Well," he said aloud, "might as well get this over with." With those words spoken, he knocked on the thick stone slab and waited a few seconds before it slid open with slight grinding sound, granting him entry.

Almost immediately after stepping through the doorway, Naruto was greeted by the angry voice of none other than Neji. "How nice of you to decide to join us, ANBU." He spat in unrestrained disgust, glaring at the armor beneath Naruto's trench coat, "I'm sorry to see that your extensive military training didn't teach you anything about the value of punctuality!"

"Hey now Neji," Kakashi interjected in his unnervingly pleasant voice, "he's only a few minutes late. It's no big deal."

"I respectfully disagree, Boss." Neji retorted standing up and pointing at Naruto, "If this ANBU dog can't even do us the courtesy of showing up on time to his very _first_ meeting, how can we trust him to deliver in any other situation! Look at him, he's even wearing their symbol along with that armor of his!" He sneered, "He's clearly too proud of his time amongst that pack of amoral beasts to truly be one of us!"

Kakashi's eye crinkled up, giving the impression that he was smiling pleasantly underneath his mask. "We can trust him because I said so, Captain…or do you think that you know better than me? Please, I would love to hear your explanation for continually questioning my decisions in front of my other officers." Though Kakashi's words were delivered with a smile, and in the same pleasant tone of voice, every person present went perfectly still as the room's temperature seemed to drop by ten degrees.

_Holy shit,_ Naruto mused, _this level of pressure is totally unreal…I can see why everybody treats his decisions like the word of law._

By this point, Neji had broken out into a cold sweat. In the dead silence of the room, the sound of his teeth grinding was nearly deafening. Clenching his fists in impotent rage beneath the might of Kakashi's will, Neji merely shot Naruto a dirty look and sat down. "Sorry, Boss…" he muttered, "it won't happen again."

Kakashi gently patted the furious young man on the shoulder, "Be sure that it doesn't," he replied in his calm voice, "being overzealous in the pursuit of duty has been the downfall of many a man, Neji. I would hate for it to be your downfall as well." Satisfied that his warning had been given, Kakashi turned towards Naruto and smiled, "Now that you are here Lieutenant, we can finally get down to the business at hand." Kakashi gestured towards the empty chair next to Asuma, "Please take a seat so we can begin. Nice outfit by the way, the patch is a nice touch."

"Thanks..." Naruto replied as he took his seat, "I made it myself."

"I could tell." Kakashi replied breezily, making the young man's eyebrow twitch.

_Why you son of a…_

"Now," Kakashi said, "as most of you know, the recent revelation that Konohamaru has been the subject of extended surveillance has finally confirmed the suspicions we have had for the last year and a half: there is a spy within the ranks."

It was here that Naruto cut in. "I'm sorry," he said, "you say that you've had a suspicion that there was a spy for the last year and a half?"

"Nothing concrete," a heavily scarred man at the end of the table replied, "at first, we just assumed that we were having a run of bad luck: warehouse raids where the ANBU showed up much faster than expected…frequent ambushes on our patrols." The man shrugged, "These sort of things were know to happen from time to time—nature of the business, but ever since a year and a half ago that sort of thing started happening more and more frequently. Eventually, we started to think it was the work of a spy."

"Thank you Ibiki, that about sums it up." Kakashi said, "Fortunately for us, the spy has yet to achieve the necessary rank to learn the access route to our base—unfortunately, our pool of suspects is rather large. Neji?"

Given his cue, Neji cleared his throat and began to speak, "Currently, we have one-hundred and twenty active soldiers below the rank of Sergeant in our forces in addition to the three-hundred and fifty-seven residents who are either in preliminary training or serving in a non-combat related capacity. Despite our best efforts, it is improbable that there is a single person living here who is unaware of Konohamaru's role as a messenger, which means that we cannot narrow that number down based on that factor. Realistically, the odds of us discovering this spy in the act are low, given that he or she has managed to successfully infiltrate us as long as they have without being caught."

Naruto furrowed his brow; this situation reeked of somebody from the ANBU Intel Division—and if he or she were able to continue spying and keep their activities unconfirmed for a year and a half under the nose of somebody like Kakashi, than they had to be good. _Very_ good, and that could mean only one thing. "Whoever the spy is," Naruto announced, "they're almost certainly one of our active soldiers."

The room broke out into mutters and Neji glared at him, "What makes you so sure, you ANBU…" Neji cut his insult off when he heard Kakashi clear his throat. "Ahem," he coughed, "I mean, why do you think that's the case."

"Yes Lieutenant," Kakashi chimed in with a knowing expression, "please explain your reasoning."

Suddenly, a lot of things made sense to Naruto. _This is why he promoted me so quickly!_ He realized, _Not because he really trusted me, or because he thought I deserved the job, but so he could keep his past as the ANBU Commander a secret by using my knowledge of the way ANBU works as a cover. He figured out that there was a spy a long time ago, he probably even knew it was a member of the active force—he just couldn't reveal it without providing a reasonable explanation of how he knew!_

Naruto nodded at Kakashi, "As a member of the Black Ops, I had extensive dealings with the intelligence division—the nature of our work required it—and most cases, a normal spy would probably choose to pose as a worker in a place where a lot of sensitive information might be overheard, such as the cafeteria. It's both effective and holds less risk than a position which poses the risk of meeting your own side in combat."

"Wait!" one of the officers exclaimed, "if what you're saying is true, than why are you saying that our spy is one of our active soldiers! That doesn't make any sense!"

Naruto shook his head, "It is true that the standard MO of any deep cover ANBU Intel specialist is to place themselves in a position which would grant the safest access to information, but I think that we are dealing with another animal entirely."

"Hold on now, Lieutenant." Asuma interjected, "I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to say…is our spy a member of the ANBU Intel division or not?"

"Yes, they are." Naruto answered, "But I have reason to believe that this particular agent is…special. You see, within the Intel division there is an elite unit—individuals who possessed the ability to join the Black Ops, but were groomed into the perfect spies: people who could assume new identities at the drop of the hat…speech patterns, mannerisms, their past, and even their appearance can be changed so rapidly that you would swear that you were talking to a totally different person. A spy of that level could easily pose as a soldier and work their way up the ranks with none the wiser—and as skilled as they are, they would have almost nothing to fear from any normal ANBU that they might encounter in battle."

"If someone like that has infiltrated us, how on earth are we going to catch them?" A young woman with brown eyes and purple hair asked, "The way you describe them, you make it sound like they are some kind of ghost!"

"It's going difficult," Naruto replied, "but not impossible. If I am correct, and he or she is an active soldier, than we've narrowed the number of suspects down from nearly five hundred to one hundred and twenty. Now we just need to be very clever about it—this morning, I was told about the spy by a private, so it stands to reason that the spy already knows that we are onto them."

"Well then," the scarred man—Ibiki—said, "what do you propose that we do?"

The room fell silent and the entire congregation stared expectantly at Naruto. He shook his head, "Your guess is as good as mine," he answered honestly, "there's a reason why these guys are called the best in the world…I don't think that I've _ever_ heard of one being caught. They're just that good."

Neji slammed his fist on the table, "That's bullshit!" he growled. Rising from his seat, the pale-eyed man pointed an accusatory finger at Naruto. "You were the one who said that it could be done! And now you're saying that it's impossible! If I didn't know better, I would say that you were protecting the spy!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes and began to see red. _That's it!_ He thought; _I've done putting up with this crap! _Pulling out one of the many knives stored in his armor, Naruto stabbed it deeply into the table. "I've had just about enough of your attitude you pompous twit!" he bellowed, "I sacrificed everything I know to save your little messenger brat! If the ANBU ever find me, I'm a dead man! Why on earth would I ever help them find this place! Now if you've got a problem with me, I'd be more than happy to settle it here and now!"

Neji smiled darkly, "I was hoping that you would say that you piece of ANBU garbage! Killing you with my bare hands is going to be the highlight of my year!"

"ENOUGH!" Kakashi roared. In an instant, the room's temperature seemed to drop to absolute zero from the chilling force of his fury. Their feud forgotten, the two young men swiveled their heads and looked into the eyes of their leader, one narrowed in rage, and the other glowing with its eerie red light. "I thought I made it clear to you that you will put aside your ridiculous grudge against the ANBU, Neji!" He growled, "But apparently I need to be more direct. If I even hear a _whisper _of you treating our new Lieutenant with anything less than the proper respect expected between fellow officers, I will _personally_ see to it that the position of Captain become vacant! _Do you understand me?_"

Neji paled and looked to the ground. "Yes Commander," he said, "I understand perfectly."

Kakashi turned his furious gaze onto Naruto, who was doing his best to maintain a neutral expression on his face. "And YOU!" he shouted, "I don't know what they taught you in ANBU, but I don't care if you are provoked—if you _ever_ threaten your superior officer like that again, I. Will. Kill. You. Myself. _Have I made myself clear?"_

Naruto swallowed, hard. "Crystal clear, sir."

In an instant, Kakashi returned to his normal smiling, pleasant self, and the oppressive tension in the room disappeared completely. "Good. We've all had a long day," he said cheerfully, "we should all get some rest and clear our heads. We will carry on as usual tomorrow—there's no reason to let the spy see us sweat. In the meantime, keep a close eye on your soldiers. If you see anything suspicious at all, report it to me immediately. Dismissed."

_Well, _Naruto thought as he filed out of the room with the rest of the officers, _that certainly could have gone better._

"Hey!"

"Now's really not the time Anko." Naruto replied without looking and pinched his nose, "In case you didn't notice, my first day didn't exactly end on a great note."

Anko sidled up to him with a grin and threw her arm around his shoulders, "Well sure," she agreed, "there's certainly room for improvement, but I wouldn't say that it was all bad."

Naruto gave her a deadpan look, "Your boss threatened to kill me…on my first day. I would say that the situation warrants a more serious description than 'needs improvement'."

"I was referring to a certain beautiful young lady that you became acquainted with today."

"Who?" Naruto asked with a shit-eating grin, "Sakura?"

Anko huffed and punched Naruto in the arm—which was covered in armor. "OW!" She winced and looked at her hand. "Probably should have considered the armor before doing that."

Naruto felt his bad mood evaporate and snickered at Anko's antics. "Yeah," he agreed, "you probably should have."

"Hmph," Anko pouted, "at least I'm not the one wearing a stupid bed sheet—did you make that in like ten minutes or something? That thing looks horrible."

"…It was supposed to send a message about my loyalties." Naruto grumbled.

"How?" Anko asked, "By telling everyone how criminally bad your fashion sense is? Cause if that was the point you were trying to make, mission successful."

"Weren't you supposed to be cheering me up?" Naruto replied with annoyance in his voice.

Anko stood on her toes and planted a kiss on his cheek, "There, you big baby," she said, "feel better now?"

"Not particularly," Naruto responded, "but if you keep trying I'm sure it'll work eventually."

"Well aren't you just the textbook definition of charming," Anko chuckled at the cheesy line, "you talk to all of the girls like that?"

"No," Naruto answered, "just the ones I think it'll work on."

"Oh, and what makes you think that it'll work on me?"

"Didn't it?"

Anko laughed and pulled him in for a long, intimate kiss. "Maybe a little." She coyly replied before diving back in for more. Several minutes passed this way before the two surfaced for air. Panting slightly, Anko leaned in close to Naruto's ear and whispered, "Your place or mine?"

Naruto gave her a lopsided grin. "Definitely yours," he replied, "my bed doesn't have any sheets."

**AN: And just like that, another chapter is down for the count. Nothing fancy to say this time. Like always, I would appreciate it if you all would hit that favorite and follow button, and leave a review if you have anything to say at all. Having more readers sustains me—so please everybody…help me feed.**


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